The Revolution

Sac Town....representing.

Back in the day we used to call our group of friends, The Revolution (we were not revolting against anything, we were just revolting). Fo sho Summer/Fall 2011, when we look back a million gazillion years from now, it will known as the Summer of Revolution. Open yer frackin' eyes just a little bit, come out from under yer rock, stop and smell those roses that people keep talking about...Revolution is in the Air. The Arab Spring has toppled decades old regimes, produced two Nobel Peace Prizes, while here in the states, the 1% are finally speaking up and taking to the streets. Two years ago the Teabaggers caused an uproar among the conservative folk and with hate in their eyes, they wanted so badly to "take their country back." And now, as we transition into Fall, #occupywallstreet (#OWS) is spreading like a Texas wildfire, but across the whole nation. Team Atheist...we can learn from this.

Dudes, I live in Nor Cal and I've been to many protests. Honestly I can tell ya, I've never cared about any issues, I always went because there was music, cute grrls and beer (and weed, so sue me.wtf). I'm a dirty stinking hippie and I think, in general of course, that protesters are dirty stinky hippies. In the past five, perhaps ten years, there has been an emergence of the professional protesters'. We see them gladly getting arrested at that Bart thing, when dignitaries come to town and when anything happens where...where they need protesters'. I'm not totally poo poo-ing them, they are needed, I just think they don't know WTF they are protesting about sometimes (I think that some are just angry people).

On NPR, and many other reports that I read, it seems that #OWS'ers are a mixed bag of jumble jumbleness. On the NPR report that I heard, fo sho there was passion in the protesters', but there was also no head, no focus. Team Atheist, that is us. Some of the #OWS'ers said that they are doing this because they want a better life, because the inequality gap is too wide, to stop corruption, etc etc etc...Don't get me wrong those are all worthy endeavors, but...focus much. I believe what the two movements have is passion, but passion is not enuff...we need organization and focus.

I just read a really good piece on Al Jazeera about #OWS. Dude gave advice to the #OWS'ers (but that was yesterday and now I can't find that article and super weirdo thingy. When I went to publish is there was a "security error". So WTF and I'm gonna do this from memory. Watch this).

One of the things that dude said was to stay persistent and stay focused. There were a couple of times during the Arab Spring that I thought that particular government was just gonna win by attrition. The people proved me wrong. In the last couple of years, at least to me, it looks like the Mighty Atheist Blogosphere is....shrinking. Say it isn't so. Go down a blogroll list, anyone of the many, and see how many inactive blogs there are (I'm not quitting). Now focus...that is something else.

#OWS is a ragtag buch o' peeps from all walks of life (just like us) and there are many grievances. What both movements need to do is "umbrella"this thang. I have heard #OWS'ers talk about corrupt government, separate money and government, distribution of wealth, heath care, employment etc etc etc. Team Atheist has concerns for equality for our sisters (feminism) and the GLBT community. The war of the science classroom and the history classroom is becoming a bigger and bigger battle as the years go on (thanks Texas school board), and of course...the assault of reason.

A great martial arts teacher once told me "the best way to learn nothing is to try and learn everything." That is what both movements are doing right now, "learning everything (at least trying to do everything at once)." It is very interesting to watch how the #OWS'ers are becoming more focused and organized as time goes by (super early reports showed a passionate, but unorganized group). It is not interesting to me to see the wind escape from our sails (is that the sayin') and our movement slow down.

Somoehow both movements need to "umbrella" this thing and make it focused like a laser beam. Let's learn from each other and support each other and most importantly, stay persisteent, keep your nose to the grind stone and never, never give in.

* This is the part where I say I'm scatter-brained and I don't know if I make sense. I really tried to say a lot in this post. What I'am not saying is that Team Atheist has NOT made great strides, fo sho the team has. My intent is to encourage "don't quit", let's keep this going, let's support and learn from each other and let's win. Just win, baby.