"There is so much ingenuity and innovation right here in this kitchen that is so lacking in so many other areas of the country," said Sam Tresler, a 32-year-old consultant from Brooklyn as he dropped off a pot of mashed potatoes he had cooked that morning. "It's inspiring."*This was a quote from one of the people donating food for the Occupy Wall Street group as he dropped off food for the protestors. They have set up a make-shift kitchen to feed those people who are there and lack food. Volunteers have worked together to solve the logistics of getting food through the clogged streets, portioning out food and serving hundreds of people several times a day.
The article tells of an 80 year old Jamaican woman who drops a $100 in a donation bucket. She doesn’t give her name because she says she doesn’t want people to think she’s rich, but she wants to try do donate again next week.
Funny. Ironic.
It didn’t take the government to make this work.
They didn’t need to pay a large food service corporation to make things happen.
They cleaned up the park too. But they didn’t need the city to do it. They didn’t need a large janitorial service to do it.
These people are working together to provide for each other.
It’s almost like this is the way it’s supposed to work.
I just wish they could see the lesson in this. You don’t have to be out blocking traffic and holding up picket signs to make a difference for one another in a rough economy.
You just have to be willing to get your hands dirty, willing to stretch your money, willing to give to help others.
A single pot of mashed potatoes may feed a dozen people. One hundred dollars can buy enough food for several dozen. It doesn’t take an act of Congress. It doesn’t take a shareholder meeting. It takes an open heart and a willing soul.
If only they could get off the streets and put these lessons to work. Grow a community garden. Start a babysitting co-op. Potluck with your neighbors. Invite an out of work friend to live with you. Take food to your elderly neighbor. Barter goods and services. Offer that $100 to the guy up the street who is out of work if he’ll fix your cabinets.
Mr. Tressler, who so generously brought the mashed potatoes talked about ingenuity. That’s precisely the answer. A little ingenuity and cooperation to solve financial problems, a little personal responsibility to help others and to get each of our own financial houses together, and we won’t need to occupy Wall Street. We’ll occupy ourselves. Ingenuity has always been the American Way.
Do these things and you take the power away from politicians and corporations. Riot in the streets and you give them back the power to ‘solve’ your problems. Don’t be pawns of politicians, unions, or wall street. Don’t let anarchy rule. Vote with your ballot to change the politicians. Vote with your dollars to change corporations.
#Occupy Yourselves
Hi! I'm Sam Tresler (email me at sam @ my website listed below if you doubt it). I appreciate the citation, and I think you make some good points (my community garden is on Spencer St. in Brooklyn!), and I buy local, however, I think this misses a lot of the point of what the protesters were getting at.
ReplyDeleteThere is a LOT that we can do for ourselves, but specific goals such as "Reinstate Glass-Steagal" and "Prosecute CEO's that knowingly break law", or "Prosecute banks that issue fraudulent mortgages" aren't goals that can be accessed outside of the government without redress from the very politicians that were elected to deal with these problems.
The issue that stands is that in 2008 the voters sent Obama, and a majority in Congress to Washington to fix these very problems. And what has happened? The Dodd-Frank bill promising 400 financial reforms - of which 12 have been drafted. 12. In 3 years the politicians that we hired to clean this mess up have scored less than 4% on the test.
So what now if not peaceful protest?
Thanks for the comment Sam. I sent a personal email your way. Peaceful protest is a great thing. I'm not so sure that occupation is. It's easy to sit around and complain. It's much harder to take personal responsibility and make active changes in your own life and encourage those around you to do so.
ReplyDeleteFor any others who are interested, Sam's website can be found at www.treslervania.com. I encourage you to go check it out. I like a lot of what he says (and I intend to try out that bread recipe.)