Occupy This

Am I the only person who got a chuckle out of the Occupy Baltimore protesters (“Occupied,” Feature, Oct. 12) using computer technology developed by the same corporations they are protesting against? From my building, I could see them arriving in cars which were—yes, you guessed it—built by corporations. I’m not opposed to corporate reform, and will be the first to tell you they’re not all good, but let’s be honest here. No one—not even the protesters—would have the standard of living they do if not for corporations. Do what you must, but don’t disown them entirely.

B. Scott Patrick
Owings Mills

Thanks to Edward Ericson Jr. for his write-up on Occupy Baltimore. Can the occupations topple the U.S. Empire? Regardless, we must support the occupiers.

Those of us in the game for many years know it is impossible to predict what might generate a movement. On June 12, 1982, a million of us marched in New York City protesting nuclear weapons and the Reagan-Bush administration’s lust for militarism. What happened to that movement and those people?

We had the largest peace movement in world history on February 15, 2003. However, once the Bush/Cheney administration, with the assistance of members of the Democratic Party, invaded Iraq, many people dropped out of the antiwar movement. In this society, we are plagued by the need for instant success and the silly belief in individualism.

The economy was destroyed by the unregulated banksters and by Bush/Cheney’s warmongering and the expenditure of trillions of dollars to kill people overseas. Despite a devastated economy, the worst I have seen, there were relatively few people out in the streets demanding jobs, higher taxes for the Forces of Greed, an end to the foreclosures, and need to go green. It baffled me why so many people were complacent.

However, the genie is finally out of the bottle, once thousands of determined people gathered near Wall Street to ignite a movement. Many are students unable to find a living wage job.

Obviously, the elite are starting to get nervous. First, the occupations were ignored and then misrepresented by the likes of Fox News. At this time, the powers-to-be are unsure what to do with the occupiers. Washington, D.C., opted for the nice-guy approach, while New York City tried sending in the bad cops. My free advice to all would be to join the occupation so together we can end militarism, racism, corporate greed, endless wars, environmental degradation, poverty, unequal distribution of wealth, and all the other ills.

Max Obuszewski
Baltimore

Editor’s note: With this issue, we bid a very fond farewell to calendar editor Wendy Ward, who leaves City Paper to take a job with Jenkins Baer Associates interior design firm. Wendy started as an intern nearly a decade ago and soon made herself indispensable with her smarts, her diligence, her gameness, and her one-of-a-kind wit. (That’s how you get ahead, folks.) She not only wrestled the Baltimore Weekly into submission each issue (no modest feat), she made it more useful and more fun to use. If you learned about some new place to go or some cool event through our calendar, chances are you owe Wendy a drink next time you see her out. And the writing skills she put to use in perhaps less obvious ways in her own section expanded into other parts of the paper, especially through her film reviews. In short, her work and her presence will be sorely missed, and we all wish her the best of luck.