By now everyone has heard or they should have heard by now the term, “OCCUPY WALL STREET”(OWS). But like many people no one quite knows what their goals or demands happen to be for certain. There are many cities across the USA that have encampments. Each night that goes by an encampment of a city park is given eviction notices to vacate the parks after curfew. Where no camping is allowed by use of tents, sleeping bags, blankets. The occupiers are expected to hold their General Assembly (GA) meetings during posted park regulations hours of use of each park the occupiers are occupying at the time.
And there seems to be an on going battle with occupying the parks between the occupiers, the police departments and city officials. Nightly across the USA there is a camp that is being given an eviction notice or face being arrested. The police departments give warnings about vacating or face possible arrest. This has been an on going situation since the movement first began in New York City on September 17th and has spread across the cities in the US. There have been hundreds of arrests in different cities at different times during this (OWS) movement.
"...the Occupy demonstrations are precisely about the concerns of Americans who have been sidelined economically. This in turn is why polls show broad support for Occupy's objectives of greater economic equality and more financial accountability..."
-E.J. Dionne, Seattle Times
Personally I have not had the opportunity to attend or visit an occupy city. However, I have watched the live streams from the many different cities from coast to coast when they broadcast their GA meetings or when a camp is being raided in the wee hours of morning. As most of the raids take place after midnight. After warnings have been given by the police department of that city for occupied space in the parks.
“Their suffering is not unique at a time when the real unemployment rate is greater than 16 percent, but all of them say they have found hope in a movement that has rewritten the national debate and which could upend what many say is a barbaric system.
It is a movement with the unambiguous demand to end the corruption of politics by corporate money – though the demand does not seem apparent to those more interested in reporting on broken windows than broken lives.”
http://occupyusatoday.com/2011/11/21/there-is-tremendous-suffering/
I have been an outsider who has only seen and heard the stories from behind the scenes. Each with their unique story to tell as to why they are involved in the OWS movement. Where a number said the movement “is one of the best things that has ever happened to me,” as one poster discribes it.
What I am trying to do is to educate people about OCCUPY WALL STREET. I feel I am doing my part by writing about it. Hopefully, as I learn more about what is going on I can share that information with people just like you and me.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Who is Jonah Mowry?
Who would take the time to put a video on YouTube and not be real in their feelings about what they have experienced when it comes to being bullied? Jonah Mowry was 13 years old in a dark time and place in his emotional life. Jonah Mowry made the video about four months ago.
YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdkNn3Ei-Lg
The troubling part there is a second video made by Jonah Mowry saying that he was all right and everything was fine now. Like night and day. Where now there was some light out of the darkness that had tormented Jonah Mowry in his not too distant past.
YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt5gvl5s2q4
The problem now is it makes some people feel that his first video was a fake or that he was faking about being gay and being bullied in the first video. When I saw the second video, it made me feel that that video was a fake and not done by the real Jonah Mowry. Apparently it is the real Jonah Mowry trying to let everyone know that he is doing just fine four months later. Chewing gum and making light of the feelings he had four month earlier.
It is good that Jonah Mowry has come to grips with who he is now. And where he has accepted that he is gay and where he has come out to his parents and all of those around him. But when he made the first video it broke many people’s hearts seeing a person in such distress with tears coming down, while he was using flash cards to tell his story in the first video.
Which makes his story heart breaking to have someone so young have to go through what he has had to endure for so long in his short life. At least he can now say, "I'm not going anywhere, because I'm stronger than that. I have a million reasons to be here."
Indeed Jonah Mowry does and we can all be thankful that he failed at his attempts to cut himself so badly to bleed to death but left with scars to prove it by. Or where he did not succeed in committing suicide and we would be reading about another young person taking their life over being bullied or being called names that were hurtful.
Jonah Mowry is now 14 and in a better place in his life. Where he is loved and has many new friends. Where growing up starting in the first grade he was bullied and ridiculed for being who Jonah Mowry really is. Jonah Mowry is a teen who has come to realize and to grips that he is in fact gay.
There are others who will say he is too young to know what his sexuality really is. There are case studies after case studies that say otherwise.
“Proof that discrimination starts at the most basic level: a new study from Yale University shows that gay teens are nearly 40% more likely than their straight peers to be disciplined at school, with girls bearing the brunt of this burden--they are more than three times as likely to be punished as their peers.
Homophobia can't be countered with statistics. Hopefully, studies like this will allow faculty and administrators to step up when they perceive bias, and maybe even encourage people in positions of authority over kids and teens to check their own unconscious bias as well.”
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/381648/study:_gay_youth_singled_out_for_harsh_discipline/
“Young people are sexual beings and have the right to a happy, healthy sex life. However they are not a homogenous group.
Differences in age, sex, experience, marital status, interests and preferences, family background, income and religion can mean that adolescents can be worlds apart in terms of what they need and want.”
http://www.ippf.org/en/What-we-do/Adolescents/Young+Peoples+Sexuality.htm
It is good to know that Jonah Mowry will now go on to accept himself for who he is. Without worrying about what others think as long as he knows who he is.
Not saying that his life will be a bed of roses but he can at least sleep at night knowing he is who he is and nothing can change that except for Jonah Mowry. Who now knows who he is and like Jonah said, "Every child deserves to be happy...even at school."
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jonah-Mowry/226144490790799
And the FACEBOOK Page Jonah Mowry made by himself.
"Well I guess since a million people are going to make a page about me I should make one for myself!"
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Jonah-Mowry-Actually-Me-Teen-Support/300769349945796?sk=wall&filter=12
YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdkNn3Ei-Lg
The troubling part there is a second video made by Jonah Mowry saying that he was all right and everything was fine now. Like night and day. Where now there was some light out of the darkness that had tormented Jonah Mowry in his not too distant past.
YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt5gvl5s2q4
The problem now is it makes some people feel that his first video was a fake or that he was faking about being gay and being bullied in the first video. When I saw the second video, it made me feel that that video was a fake and not done by the real Jonah Mowry. Apparently it is the real Jonah Mowry trying to let everyone know that he is doing just fine four months later. Chewing gum and making light of the feelings he had four month earlier.
It is good that Jonah Mowry has come to grips with who he is now. And where he has accepted that he is gay and where he has come out to his parents and all of those around him. But when he made the first video it broke many people’s hearts seeing a person in such distress with tears coming down, while he was using flash cards to tell his story in the first video.
Which makes his story heart breaking to have someone so young have to go through what he has had to endure for so long in his short life. At least he can now say, "I'm not going anywhere, because I'm stronger than that. I have a million reasons to be here."
Indeed Jonah Mowry does and we can all be thankful that he failed at his attempts to cut himself so badly to bleed to death but left with scars to prove it by. Or where he did not succeed in committing suicide and we would be reading about another young person taking their life over being bullied or being called names that were hurtful.
Jonah Mowry is now 14 and in a better place in his life. Where he is loved and has many new friends. Where growing up starting in the first grade he was bullied and ridiculed for being who Jonah Mowry really is. Jonah Mowry is a teen who has come to realize and to grips that he is in fact gay.
There are others who will say he is too young to know what his sexuality really is. There are case studies after case studies that say otherwise.
“Proof that discrimination starts at the most basic level: a new study from Yale University shows that gay teens are nearly 40% more likely than their straight peers to be disciplined at school, with girls bearing the brunt of this burden--they are more than three times as likely to be punished as their peers.
Homophobia can't be countered with statistics. Hopefully, studies like this will allow faculty and administrators to step up when they perceive bias, and maybe even encourage people in positions of authority over kids and teens to check their own unconscious bias as well.”
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/381648/study:_gay_youth_singled_out_for_harsh_discipline/
“Young people are sexual beings and have the right to a happy, healthy sex life. However they are not a homogenous group.
Differences in age, sex, experience, marital status, interests and preferences, family background, income and religion can mean that adolescents can be worlds apart in terms of what they need and want.”
http://www.ippf.org/en/What-we-do/Adolescents/Young+Peoples+Sexuality.htm
It is good to know that Jonah Mowry will now go on to accept himself for who he is. Without worrying about what others think as long as he knows who he is.
Not saying that his life will be a bed of roses but he can at least sleep at night knowing he is who he is and nothing can change that except for Jonah Mowry. Who now knows who he is and like Jonah said, "Every child deserves to be happy...even at school."
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jonah-Mowry/226144490790799
And the FACEBOOK Page Jonah Mowry made by himself.
"Well I guess since a million people are going to make a page about me I should make one for myself!"
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Jonah-Mowry-Actually-Me-Teen-Support/300769349945796?sk=wall&filter=12
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