Opinion: Occupy sets goals on Long Island
An Occupy Wall Street protest held at the Long Wharf in Sag Harbor on Oct. 15 Credit: Photo by Randee Daddona
Local activist and educator Peter Maniscalco of Manorville and C.W. Post associate professor of geography Scott Carlin of Hampton Bays have established an Occupy Long Island Facebook community page.
With blinding speed, Occupy Wall Street has inspired a global movement. And removing tents from Occupy sites across the country won't slow it down; police actions seem if anything to be accelerating public participation. On Long Island, Occupy protests have taken root from Mineola to Sag Harbor. More protests are planned.
A raw nerve has been touched: The "99 percent" have been swept aside by greed and corruption in our financial and political systems and have seen our basic quality of life -- health care, education, infrastructure and environment -- sharply decline. We believe this greed and corruption are manifestations of a deeper ethical, moral and spiritual bankruptcy.
Albert Einstein once said: "You cannot solve a problem at the same level of consciousness that created it." Occupy Wall Street is in the early stages of creating new ways of thinking and being. It is advocating a leaderless movement structure. Its general assembly -- a daily meeting in Zuccotti Park of all Occupy Wall Street participants -- practices direct democracy, striving for consensus among participants. Occupy Long Island groups in Sag Harbor, Mineola, Stony Brook, Huntington, Patchogue and other communities are hosting general assemblies too, including at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University and at Stony Brook University.
The foundation of a new Long Island consciousness will emerge from our connection to one another, not our anger and isolation from each other. For example, one Levittown grandmother has asked for help to "occupy" her foreclosed home, so she doesn't lose it. But our anger can be used in a positive manner: to motivate us to change unjust conditions.
Young people recognize that their future looks bleak. Long Island youth have been participating in the protests in Zuccotti Park, and students on local campuses have been active. They know that Long Island businesses can't produce enough jobs for our graduates, economic inequality continues to widen and environmental conditions worsen. As educators and mentors, we want to work with Long Island college and high school students to help manifest their vision of a just and sustainable Long Island. We trust that large numbers of Long Island educators see this social movement as a generation-defining, teachable moment.
Unfortunately, today's schools are trapped within a culture that celebrates money and technology, not learning. The Occupy movement has focused national attention on college tuition costs. Let's add school curricula to the agenda. This generation faces an unprecedented intellectual, moral and spiritual challenge: moving our interdependence with nature and other cultures from the background to the center stage of education. Occupy Long Island plans to challenge the countless ways schools teach planetary and cultural dominance. Local schools should connect these themes to suburban problems and their solutions.
Our Long Island lifestyle is energy and resource intensive; we generate too much waste and import large quantities of raw materials and finished products. These are the outward manifestations of our wealth and economic success. But this lifestyle -- with its high, unaffordable housing costs -- drives our young people away.
To date, there's no policy consensus within the Occupy movement, but there is broad agreement that we need to define a new, more sustainable lifestyle. Housing, schooling and health care must affirm and celebrate our common humanity. Suburban lifestyles must sustain fresh water, soil, marine systems and climate.
So Long Islanders must choose: the status quo, which is a moral and spiritual dead end, or a commitment to compassion, justice and community. We can increase investments in our military and fossil-fuel based industries and encourage increased economic inequality; or we can invest in renewable energy, natural ecosystems, a habitable climate system, human rights and public infrastructure.
Are we already corporate serfs, enslaved by our debts? Or can we organize a peaceful revolution that manifests the best of who we are as humans, while protecting Long Island?
