On October 17th, the Mille Lacs Messenger published the following letter of mine. Click Occupy Wall Street to view the "Messenger's"
presentation of this letter.
Occupy Wall Street
What is happening with "Occupy Wall Street"? Why are they protesting? Hopefully they are not simply protesting
due to the ever-increasing gap between the rich and poor. Although that is reason enough, there are
many reasons I think they are protesting. Protesters are generally claiming to be there in
opposition to corporate greed.
There is no doubt in my mind that these protests are akin to the "Arab spring," though not nearly
as violent. Occupy Wall Street is a symptom of the state of the economy; the economy that is propped
up by subsidies to the mega corporations.
This movement is a response to the state of the American economy and the obscene
disparities between the rich and the poor, which is associated with corporate
greed and the modern world economy.
This world economy controls our means
of survival, and is propped up by all institutions, be they government,
religious, legal, academic, media, etc. It's a kind of economics that pretends
it is a science, attempting to force us to believe in its authority,
attempts to trick us into thinking that gross domestic product should be
the measure of civilized nations. It is a kind of economics that does
not take into account rapid deforestation, loss of species, loss of
fresh water, depleting natural resources, oil spills, global warming,
melting ice-caps, more droughts, floods and hurricanes, nuclear disasters, etc. in its "cost" or
GDP calculations.
This world economy perpetuates the myth that presumes, pretentiously, that
the earth has limitless "resources"; it's the kind of economics that commodifies
humans in the same fashion as "natural resources." Whether expressly or not,
I believe all the protesters are standing up against these basic tenets of
modern economics, which are incompatible with continuing sustainable civilizations.
Could this be the crucial moment in our time when we demonstrate for all the world
that we are willing to move beyond ideological obedience to corporate greed?
I hope that, eventually, Occupy Wall Street includes as a demand, that we
consider an American-Western, and global strategy for dealing with our current
path to planetary destruction.
On Monday, Oct. 10, members of the indigenous community from Owe Aku International
Justice Project, First Voice Indigenous Radio, and the United
Confederation of the Taino people brought their voices to Occupy Wall Street and reminded
us to rethink Columbus Day.
They addressed how corporate greed and indigenous history have for hundreds of years been an integral
part of the indigenous struggle to maintain a way of life, maintain indigenous territories,
and fulfill indigenous responsibilities to the environment for future generations.
They said, "Corporate greed is the driving factor for the global oppression and suffering of Indigenous populations.
It is the driving factor for the conquest and continued suffering for the Indigenous peoples
on this continent. Around 100 million Indigenous peoples were eradicated during the process of Europe's
colonization of the western hemisphere. The effects of corporate greed eventually spills
over and negatively impacts all people."
Indigenous peoples and their supporters seek the formal revocation of the 1493 papal bull
Inter Caetera which was a Vatican command to Christopher Columbus on his second voyage
to the "new world." This degree sought to establish domination world-wide and called for the subjugation of
non-Christian peoples and seizure (occupation) of their lands.
Indigenous people are saying, "Inter Caetera is the foundation of the international
system we live under today and directly related to the corporate-state-military occupation
and rape of Mother Earth." I hope Occupy Wall Street protesters hear what our nation's indigenous
people are saying and make their message a permanent part of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Thomas Dahlheimer,
Wahkon
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