Observations from the Class War Battlefield Operation Take it to Ziccotti The NYPDs latest attempt to discourage protesters

at Liberty Park from remaining encamped is to direct the mentally ill drug users {not mutually exclusively} to their location. The slow amassing of these forgotten souls has left protesters shaken; while they are being hospitable; the accumulated consequences of long term homelessness, untreated mental illness, drug use and alcoholism have left many of the migratory with diminished mental capacities and disintegrating personalities. The inability to create a solution to this problem has, in my mind, signified a weakness in the movement, one that could be turned into a powerful statement and spiritual indictment for our nation. At the heart of this weakness is the list of charges being lobed at the movement by both right and left wing pundits, the most outright being the lack of concrete solutions to immediate and long term problems. Right Wing opposition in particular have made the claim that the masses at OWS are spoiled middle class citizens who are whining because their privileged lives have been disrupted by market forces. While I cannot speak about the composition of the gathering (I am not there, yet I long to be), I can offer the participants a solution to the homeless problem. The first step is to release a statement about the homeless problem in America; detailing the fact that we have enough homes in America to house everyone but we dont value humans more than the profits the banks that own them would make. Second, call on Doctors without Borders and Red Cross International to set up treatment clinics at your encampment, partner with local shelters or if all the area shelters are full make a public note of the fact that the city is shirking its civic responsibilities, releasing a statement saying in part, Because the city cannot take care of its citizens, desiring instead to use money that can build more shelters for tax breaks for billionaires; we are now being tasked with caring for its forgotten residents, thus we are asking the international medical community, including DWB and RCI to treat these people like the Economic Refugees that they are. Third, meet with local homeless organizations to create a broader plan to fix this new problem. I draw on limited experience to present this plan but its outline comes from the tactics Martin Luther King used to expose Chicagos slums (for reference read through the incredibly well researched Bearing the Cross by David J Garrow Chapter 8 and 9; or At Canaans Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68 by Taylor Branch Part III). As winter looms and discussion turns toward broader activity and coalition construction I would ask that you remember this reality; life is now confronting this movement working to implement real change. To what end this change comes depends on the ability those engaging most fiercely in its positioning, maneuvers its self to confront lifes uglier side. This will require an abandonment of class consciousness and a recognition that previously labeled radical thought is not so radical but humane. OWS has accurately captured many of the inhumane properties of the system we now exist in; placing them in their first declaration but now focus is required to combat the actions of the counter revolutionary forces they will confront. This means playing on a larger field then theyre use to. As I said before and Ill say again, learn the tactics of these forces; be prepared to counter them. Gods Speed Occupiers, the whole of America stands behind you. Thank you for letting me reach you today.