Occupy Davis

Tonight, Tuesday, February 21, with a unanimous vote the Davis City Council passed a resolution in support of Assembly Joint Resolution 22 (pdf) to Overturn Citizens United v. Federal Election Committee Supreme Court Ruling. By doing so, Davis joins the growing number of communities creating a nationwide backlash against the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling.

Thank you, Josh Jones and Jim Leonard, for spearheading this drive! Thank you to Mary, April & Jam who also spoke in favor of passing the resolution. Tom, Ian, Phillip and I were present to offer our support. So wonderful to see an informed citizenry in action! Wow! Just, Wow! And Kudos to the Davis City Council of course!

Learn more about the Citizens United Ruling here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission.

Letter to the Davis Enterprise, published Dec. 8, 2011

The title of your Dec. 2 story on Occupy Davis (“Rights vs. Rules”) is ironic in view of the US Senate’s latest draconian measures to further suspend the constitutional rights of those non-corporate persons known as human beings and citizens. Last Tuesday the Senate voted – with bipartisan support – to allow the military to detain terrorism suspects, including US citizens, on US soil and hold them indefinitely without trial.

As the latest and most alarming incursion into our constitutional rights, this continues a decades-long political program to increase the ability of authorities to monitor and ultimately silence whomever they see as a threat, bypassing constitutional protections with virtually no oversight or recourse.

Each step of the way, US citizens have gone along with the program, perhaps believing these measures are needed to fight the war on terror or the war on drugs or some other war, or expecting naively that they would never affect us if we obey the rules.

But what if the rules are changed so that what was lawful yesterday is redefined tomorrow as a terrorist threat? When do our supposed protectors start to become our tyrants? Does anyone feel safer because of the annoying and intrusive airport security measures, now including full body radiation scans and invasive pat-downs?

Each step of the way, the intrusion gets a little bit worse to see if we are still willing to tolerate it. We are like the frog in the pan of water being brought to a boil so gradually that we don’t notice until we’re practically cooked. When do we say “that’s enough!” and get out there with the Occupiers to take back our country?

Instead of continuing to argue about how the message is being delivered, let’s start talking as a community about the message itself. This is the truly urgent matter at hand, because what’s happening in the country – endless corporate impediments to sane and humane public policy, and militaristic responses to everything – is slowly cooking us all. The Occupy Movement, however we might critique it, is the wake-up call we desperately need.

Lorenzo Kristov

December 7, 2011

Dear friends,

I was asked by camp meeting participants to write to you. I have clearly used the word “we” a lot. I am the author of this letter, but these are things I was asked to write.

Occupy Davis will no longer be maintaining a continuous occupation of Central Park. Our tents and structures are coming down this morning. This does not mean that our movement is ending or that we will stop having actions, rather that our movement will now be proceeding in a new way. At Monday’s camp meeting it was decided that our goals can best be served by regrouping and refocusing on more targeted political actions. 24/7 occupation has been a valuable tactic for us so far, and an immensely successful strategy for the wider occupy movement, but now we intend to set aside continuous occupation for the time being, so that we can gather ourselves and strengthen our movement.

There will be a General Assembly tonight at Central Park and regular General Assemblies will continue. Your participation in General Assemblies and continued support are greatly appreciated. Please watch for announcements of future marches and other actions.

We would like to thank all of you for your participation, donations, and other forms of support. We have already achieved a lot together: we maintained a continuous occupation of Central Park for over seven weeks. We have also learned much about each other as well as the challenges we face and power we posses. We would like to emphasize that the wider occupy movement and our own local manifestation of it are only just beginning. The movement will continue to grow and become stronger. We look forward to working together in the future.

The emergency SMS list will now be used to announce major actions rather than emergencies. Please text @dtdavisoccupy to 23559 to be added to our SMS alert list for major actions.

–Skyler

Letter to the Davis Enterprise, 12/4/11

Your editorial of 11/17 opines that Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has made its point and that the encampments themselves are now the issue. It then recommends the occupiers work for change by supporting candidates and voting. OK, but voting ain’t what it used to be.

Regardless of vote counts, elected officials will still be obligated to the special interests that fund their campaigns.

Voters can be manipulated by constant streams of ads, whether truthful or not, bought by the ultra rich. This was how private wealth turned North Carolina from blue to red as documented by Jean Mayer in the New Yorker, Oct. 10, 2011.

The revolving door between government and industry is largely beyond voter influence and even knowledge. It is evident reporter Ian Urbana took years to unravel how the natural gas industry worked its way on the EPA for the purpose of unregulated hydrofracking. His reports in the March NYT issues are worth reading.

True reformers are driven out of government. Recall the case of Elizabeth Warren. Additionally, Donald Berwick MD, the top Medicare official has resigned per the Washington Post and NYT (11/24). Like Warren in the financial world, Berwick was working to correct fundamental obstacles to equitable health care delivery. Both were opposed by the GOP while not effectively supported by the Democrats.

It is worth noting the health insurance and banking industries are the two largest campaign contributors in D.C. per Yves Smith, financial analyst interviewed on the Newshour 11/24. These industries like things the way they are.

Lawrence Lessig, Harvard law professor, is the most recent scholar to develop this theme in his 2011 book, “Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress- and a Plan to Stop It.”

So while the message of the 99% has been heard, the profound corruption of government by money is still not recognized. Tinkering with votes is ineffective if the root problem is not challenged. If OWS can drive those last points home and the movement decides a constant, physical presence is necessary, then looking at unsightly tents is a trivial concern. Corruption is uglier still.

Mary M. Zhu, Davis