Stand up

The whole "Occupancy" thing has been getting a lot of attention. To be honest, I thought it was something having to do with the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, but then I started looking into it more. Brace yourselves, because I Graduated, Now What? is about to get....political. I love the Occupancy movement, partly because it's so unclear to which party these people belong, and I love anything non-partisan. "Angry about our economic, social, and political problems" is not the official stance of either side.

What does Occupancy mean to me? I think it's a little like the Declaration of Independence. A bunch of people, pissed off, standing up and saying "No more of this. You suck, and we're done with you." It's the average person (fact: the "middle" is overlooked in almost everything, from the classroom to the professional world -- yet it often makes up the largest piece of the population) sticking it to the man. It's people who have heard "That's the way it is, and there's nothing you can do about it" one too many times.

The Occupants call themselves "The 99%," and claim that almost everything, from policy decisions to everyday things (for lack of a better word) are made to benefit the wealthy, the 1%. And it's not fair.

"But wait, you whiney, lazy, little brat," you might say. "Those people worked hard to get where they are. And you could too, with a little hard work."

Not true. Despite what we may believe, America is not the meritocracy it pretends to be. Read Malcom Gladwell's The Outliers for research on this. Successful people have been helped by timing, luck, knowing people, a natural disposition for others to serve them, and even the placement on the calendar of their birthdays. It's true, people who are born in earlier months are frequently more successful than those born in later months, especially in sports. I'm not making this up; read the book.

The fact is that who you know matters -- sometimes more so than how qualified you are. Those in lower classes and even in middle classes usually stay there. Look more closely at those Cinderella Stories you grew up with, and you will see how outside factors (factors OTHER than "just a little hard work") came into play during the success stories. Check this article out if you need some more evidence. I'm not saying they don't deserve to be there. I'm just saying that getting to the top is much, MUCH harder than people make it out to be -- and that those middle classers who feel overlooked and stand in the street holding signs have just as much right to voice their frustrations.

Then there's the bailouts. I don't know the whole story (does anyone, really?) but I DO know that when members of my family lost their jobs, nobody was there to bail them out. I know that there are millions of people who have lost their houses because of this economy, people forced to move, forced to downsize, forced to the streets in some cases. Is there anyone bailing them out, the occupants ask.

For me, it's personal because of the fact that I just graduated and it was like opening a door in a tree in the woods and walking into Halloweentown. With every letter and phone call I make, I feel like I'm standing in a mime box, screaming at... who? Who's listening? Nobody is listening, because I am just a resume in a stack of a million, and it doesn't matter that I love English, or that I want this more than probably anyone else in that pile. Then there's my college, which totally shoved me out the door and left me on my own -- and who was there to help me get a job this summer? Who was there to push the paperwork so my certification would go through in time? Nobody. Nobody was there, because they don't care. Because once they get my money, I become just another graduate, and the people at the top really can't be bothered with the problems of peasants. And there was nothing I could do about it.

Until now. No, this little sign and my "Peas on Earth" pajamas are not going to change the world. The other day I was discussing the Occupancy with some other people, and someone said, "It's all a bit silly, really. I mean, what is it going to do?" What is it going to do? Maybe nothing. But you know what definitely accomplishes nothing? Not trying. You think there weren't people who sat around while the colonists were chanting "No taxation without representation" and signing whiney papers? That those people didn't think the whole thing was "a bit silly?" But where would we be if those people hadn't exercised the free speech that they hadn't even earned yet?

Is the Occupancy going to be as landmark as the Declaration? Of course not -- at least probably not. And I apologize for the possibly hyperbolic comparison. But for so long people have been standing around sporting "WTF" expressions, saying "someone should do something about this, why doesn't someone do something?" And now someone has.

And so, to those of you who wish someone would do something, STAND UP! Wherever you are, stand up and OCCUPY!