Occupy protesters do little to help their own causes

Chuck Pinkey

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October 25, 2011

Anonymous Daily Star The Daily Star Tue Oct 25, 2011, 03:24 AM EDT

The liberal left has a new "darling." With the sweeping success of the conservative Tea Party movement in the 2010 fall elections, liberals and their media allies were grabbing at straws. Like Dorothy in the Land of Oz, they found their scarecrow, but unlike Oz, there is no wizard.

Occupy Wall Street has burst upon the scene with the blessings of President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, labor unions, the Communist Party, President Ahmadinejad of Iran and the liberal media. It has been praised as democracy in action and lauded as a worldwide movement.

However, our media elite are doing a terrible job covering Occupy Wall Street, aka the Flea Party. Just Google and you will find videos showing protesters with signs reading, "Hitler's Banks," "Wall Street Jews," "Gaza approves of Occupy Wall Street," "Jewish billionaires," "tax the rich until they're poor" and of course, "Down with capitalism, up with socialism."

Can you imagine the firestorm if these blatantly anti-Semitic signs were seen at a Tea Party rally or anywhere else for that matter? Sadly, they are not even reported by the major press, which champions itself as unbiased and fair. Does the left value its agenda so much that it will ignore the repulsive?

The height of hypocrisy is actress Susan Sarandon calling Pope Benedict XVI a Nazi for his conscription into the Hitler Youth at age 14. This is the same actress who appears at OWS rallies where these anti-Semitic signs abound, and lends her support. Is she blind or just filled with hate?

Speaking of repulsive, the urinating and defecating in Zuccotti Park got so bad that Mayor Michael Bloomberg threatened to close the park for cleaning. Has this ever happened at a Tea Party rally?

Visit www.occupywallstreet.com, and you will find boasts of 70, 42, and 22 arrested in NYC demonstrations. Quotes like, "Four paddy wagons and arrests on 46 and 6th Avenue" and "Citibank ... Occupiers are inside and currently being arrested" abound. Is this a Democratic movement that Americans will embrace?

I saw a young man being interviewed by the press. By wearing your baseball cap with the brim covering your right ear and by yelling at the camera so close that a first-year dental student could spot a shadow on your bicuspid, one does not appear very intellectual. Besides, if the F-word were omitted, he'd have nothing to say!

OWS has a lot in common with professional wrestling. Both appear to be something they're not and are about as real as Burt Reynolds' hair.

Apparently they have a bone to pick with the rich Wall Street fat cats. After all, they are greedy. But wait a minute! The majority of Americans own some sort of stock, and don't we want as large a return as possible? Hmm? Maybe those who support OWS should call their brokers and request a more-modest return.

Surely, they are making a mistake by only targeting Wall Street. May I suggest Occupy Oprah Winfrey or Occupy Peyton Manning? Oprah makes $315 million a year, and I'm sure she doesn't employ nearly as many people as Citibank, and Peyton Manning just signed a $90 million contract with the Colts. Now there's a boom to the U.S. economy!

How about Occupy Charlie Sheen? Seems like someone should! At $1.25 million per episode times 26 shows, he was netting $32.5 million for playing the part of a sex addict. Now there was greed worth protesting!

By the signs they wave, many in OWS favor socialism, and we are further down that road than most Americans realize. Capitalism creates opportunity. Socialism pays slugs to do as little as possible. Just look to Europe as an example. Margaret Thatcher once said, "Socialism works, until you run out of other people's money."

OWS is targeting capitalism and the American system, which has served us well. Large banks lend needed capital and make investments in business and industry. Entrepreneurs create jobs and produce products. If their products are worthy, they prosper. If not, they fail. That competition to succeed is what has made America great. Just ask Oprah, Peyton, and if he's lucid, Charlie Sheen.

The system works well, but it is not without fault. It can be improved, but chances are, not by the likes of OWS, who offer nothing but condemnation and ridicule. President Obama's "spread the wealth around" is not the answer.

We have even been told that the Tea party and Occupy Wall Street share common goals. Common goals? We both may feel the system is corrupt, but we do not agree on the cause and certainly not on the cure! The Tea Party wants to work within the system to improve it. Occupy Wall Street wants to destroy it.

Chuck Pinkey is the owner of River Valley New Holland Inc. in Otego. He can be reached at chuck.rvnewholland@gmail.com.