BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
That’s what a friend said when I contacted her after hearing she’d been to the “Occupy LA” encampment at LA’s City Hall. Hearing her speak was very moving. It was all the more heartening that we as Armenians were a bit of a presence.
She’s been going regularly, no less frequently than every other day, despite the burden that imposes on her after taking care of her kids. Also, I learned from her of two other Armenians who were in attendance, I know of another couple who have stopped in, and as already reported in the media, the AYF also attended.
Couple this with another compatriot being quoted in a Huffington Post article —“Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Protesters Propose A National Convention, Release Potential Demands” byTyler Kingkade, and it’s time to start having hope! We are truly among the 99%, regardless of how many of us may be too snooty to admit it. Blindness to that reality can only hurt us as humans, citizens of the U.S., and activists in the service of the Armenian cause.
Tuesday morning, I heard a “Democracy Now!” interview with Asmaa Mahfouz, one of the early Egyptian activists who helped mobilize the people of her country. She was at OWS. Her expressions of solidarity were inspiring and moving. I was tearing up as I drove to work. In part I remembered the mutual expressions of solidarity when Wisconsin moved back in February and I had the honor and privilege of briefly being there.
Ofcourse the “occupy” protests are caused by the fundamental systemic inequity, has slowly been worked into our society and lives over the past three or four decades, that has created a situation that is a throwback to the days just before the Great Depression rocked the U.S. and the world. Elizabeth Warren, the precluded-by-Republican-Senators almost-appointee as head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and now Massachusetts Senatorial candidate, has a great presentation included in a video that explains the situation very tersely, cogently, impactfully, and yet comprehensively.
In the first minute of the video, the explanation she gives is the answer to those who are making great sport of sneeringly, smugly, or even innocently “wondering” what all the fuss is about. I met such a man on the bus who asked me to be his “interpreter.” That’s when I realized that the analogy, though very unequal in substance, but ideal in form comes from the judge who when asked “what is pornography” replied “I can’t describe it, but I know it when I see it.” Every one of us knows, viscerally, that the movement to represent our 99% is on the mark. Have the goals been well and fully formulated? Not yet, but this just started about two months ago.
What is really telling is the right-wing media’s attempts to discredit it by mocking it. Those bankster-loving, people-misleading pundits and hate-radio mouthpieces are desperate to undercut what is truly a people’s movement. I heard one such radio personality claiming the “occupy” movement was well funded by left-wing-big-money interests! That’s laughable! It is particularly obscene when contrasted with the cover-up-by-silence of the huge sums of money right-wing billionaires have poured into their pet causes. The best example is the Koch brothers.
Let’s engage in what is the future of decent, hard working people the world over, from Yettem to Yerevan. Go to your local “occupy” location and render at least moral support and gratitude.
Again, this man uses this website to spew his left-wing b.s. and somehow spin it as an Armenian issue. OK, let’s play this game. Here is how the Occupy (fill in the blank) crowd relates to Armenians.
What we are seeing here is the early stages of an attempt to change the basic fabric of the United States. Yes, they are anti-capitalists, but more accurately, they are socialists. Armenians know about socialism. It is the precursor to communism. Neither philosophy/world view worked for Armenia because Armenians are too smart, too industrious, too clever to accept such a scheme. They were among the first nations to reject the Soviet Union when the opportunity presented it.
Armenians understand that some people are more industrious and intelligent than others. The Bible even tells us of the rewards of hard labor.
What these protesters want is wealth distribution. Take from the prosperous, give to the “unfortunate.” Everybody shares the wealth.
Just one problem, Garen old pal, it doesn’t work. Look at Greece, look at the EU. Look at the Soviet Union. Wait! There is no Soviet Union. Didn’t work, did it Garen?
You can call it wealth distribution, economic justice or what it really is…socialism. It doesn’t work because human beings are human beings. Take away their will to excel, replace it with check from the government and they will naturally stumble into mediocrity.
For those of you like Garen, who are history challenged, the free market economy is what made America the greatest country in man’s history. If you and George Soros and our wonderful president don’t like it, there are still a few places that stubbornly cling to socialism and big brother communism. I suggest you book a flight and move there.
Aaah,my dear eghpair Danoog ,you`re 1000% bloody right-socialism has never worked it doesnt work and it will never never work,but in the heads of potheaded leftwing loonies.Now may I humbly ask you just one simple Question ??? What is the party publishing the news paper you write your posts on -left wing socialist,center ,right wing ,or what???Thank you very much,shnorhavor em,now excuse me I gotta go & occupy bloody wall street-its better to distribute the wealth others created than to go &work for it.Vonts ek???
It’s nice that your faith in humanity has been restored, but why do you mock people who disagree with you? That’s not very nice. Your second-to-last paragraph reads like satire. You criticize the right-wingers for mocking the Occupiers, and then in the next sentence mock them. You dismiss the idea that the Occupy Wall Street movement is funded by an ideological billionaire – George Soros – and then claim that the Tea Party movement is funded by ideological billionaires – David and Charles Koch. It’s hypocritical, if you ask me.
Just my two cents. As someone in the middle, I see both sides partaking in the same disruptive behavior. It’s sad.
What does the Occupy movement have anything to do with Armenians? Just because there were a few Armenians in the crowd does not mean Armenians as a whole support the movement. This article contains no newsworthy information in my opinion.
Garen, how about we debate the differences between OWS and the Tea Party. You can throw out all the one-liners about 99% et al but I will focus instead on FACTS.
In my opinion this article contains newsworthy information because of AYF participation. The Occupy movement demanding a complete restructuring of the political and monetary system nothing to do with socialism or communism. Many Armenian Americans share the same frustrations as their fellow citizens,
if these “ayf-ers’ ” parents knew they were attending this OWS rally, they would wring their necks. being a hard-working armenian-american goes against all this BS that these “weirdos” are portraying. they represent the 1%, not the 99%, because i don’t believe that 99% of us are whacko like them. by the way, garen, you will never be elected to any public office if you keep sounding off like you do in this article. it’s a good way to get attention maybe, but the not the good kind of attention.
Socialism in this country started in the mid-sixties and has continued to this day. We can see its devastating consequences. It only creates more poverty and an unparalleled corruption that completely destroys all merits, virtues and characters on everyone it touches.
To my regret I married an Armenian from the Soviet Union not knowing how devoid of any ethics and idealism that union had propagated in its own people.
Will the socialist hallucinating in their own lies of being 99% of the people learn the lessons from the fate of socialist states of Greece or Italy? How could they speak of 99% when it was the Tea Party who got the 99% of the vote in the last elections?
Garen, one more time, stop using this forum for your incurable socialist rants.