Letter to the Editor: The National Occupy Wall Street Movement

Dear Northeast Cobb Patch Editor,

I am a Northeast Cobb resident who supports The National Occupy Wall Street Movement. I'm college-educated, middle-aged, and unemployed. Like other citizens of our great country, I am disgusted and impatient with the bureaucrats protecting corporate America.

When an employee fails to perform well, an employer can fire that employee. American taxpayers have no power to change the misuse of federal taxpayer dollars or corporate corruption. If we truly lived in a Democracy, we'd be able to.

700 Occupy protestors were arrested in New York crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, including a child. Outrageous! Taxpayers paid for that bridge. If taxpayers want to cross the bridge, they ought to be able. They should've had a police escort.

Arrests of nonviolent New York protestors is nothing compared to the unwarranted law enforcement violence against Occupy Boston protestors. Police beat war veterans who protested (see accompanying video).

We are witnessing just what kind of "freedom" and "rights" the American taxpayer really has.

'We the People' elected the bureaucrats. By God, we have a right to demonstrate frustrations without arrest or police violence. The bureaucrats feel threatened, so they claim the act of showing our outrage is "civil disobedience." That, in itself, is cause for outrage.

The most drama involving the Occupy Atlanta group has been for the perceived snubbing of John Lewis, the Civil Rights Movement icon and Democratic congressman from Georgia.

in regards to Patch's article about the perceived John Lewis., "Could the (perceived) snub be from the fact that when John Lewis took congressional office in Jan 1987 the federal deficit was just $2.1 trillion and now it sits at $14.8 trillion?"

that Mayor Reed plans to issue an Executive Order 5 p.m. Wednesday allowing the protesters to remain in Woodruff Park for five days.

On Wednesday, the Occupy Atlanta marched to Bank of America Plaza in Midtown without incident.

As a Georgia native and taxpayer, I am proud (and suprised) at the way our bureaucrats are treating protestors.

When asked by the AJC how the Occupy Movement compares to the Tea Party, Rep. Paul Broun, R-Athens said, "The tea party represents basic American values where these people do not. They represent the radical, progressive, socialist, communistic individuals of this country. It’s obvious they’ve been funded and been organized and mobilized by the radical left, where the tea party was a spontaneous grass-roots movement.”

Rep. Hank Johnson, D-DeKalb, countered: “I don’t think there’s any comparison. The tea party was organized by corporate interests. The Occupy Wall Street protests were organized by the people themselves.”

I agree with Rep. Johnson, and for the record, I am not a Democrat.

Bottom-line, folks, taxpayers have had enough of the misuse of federal tax dollars by elected politicians and corporate greed. These protests are just the beginning, and will force change.

Edward B.