Occupy Wall Street prompts student to promote compromise

For over 20 days, a movement that started in New York has spread to other parts of the country such as Washington, D.C.
It is not really clear what goal the movement seeks to see happen.
They’ve been called the Tea Party of the left.
They are being supported by democrats such as Nancy Pelosi, while being referred to as mobs by some republicans like Eric Cantor, who started out saying that he was “increasingly concerned about the growing mobs” when talking about these Wall Street protests.
The protesters have a clear message about dissatisfaction with the difference between rising incomes of the rich and the stagnating incomes of everyone else.
They also call themselves the 99 referring to the claim that the richest one percent controls the majority of the wealth.
The protesters see themselves as representatives of the working class who are losing wealth and purchasing power during the recession.
They are similar to the tea party protests with a few differences.
While the Tea Party’s anger was directed at the perceived encroachment of the federal government against states’ rights and what they considered to be massive overspending, the Occupy Wall Street movement is angry at banks and businesses that made profits, increased CEO salaries and increased consumer costs while failing to do what they were expected to do, which was to provide jobs.
OWS doesn’t seem to see it as the federal government’s fault, but instead see Wall Street as being plagued by greed and selfishness.
For more information you can visit their website at http://occupywallst.org/.
I think it would be a mistake for this movement to consider itself opposed to any other group.
I believe in the art of negotiation and compromise.
When you see an opponent as an enemy then compromise becomes much more difficult.
Like anything worth doing, the journey towards the goal of a strong united nation will be long, difficult and filled with mistakes.
We will question our leaders, ourselves and our past.
As long we believe the goal is within reach, then there’s no reason to stop trying and there’s no reason we should be divided amongst ourselves.
As strongly as we hold on to our own values and beliefs, we must also be willing to look at the values of those we consider to be opponents with an open and unbiased mind.
It is in this way that the truth of things can be discovered.
As for the future of this movement I think that it is about time they woke up.
Apathy is the ruin of nations and a democracy works best when its citizens are informed and motivated to participate in the system.
Tea Party conservatism or OWS liberalism, it doesn’t matter what you stand for so long as you stand for something.
We all have a vision of what the ideal world should look like, but it is through dialogue and action that we, as a society, can form a consensus about the direction that will be taken to create a better world than what was given to us.
Not everyone will be happy with the result, especially with the vast number of opinions and values.
But what matters is that all of our voices have been or can be heard and that we are willing to listen to our neighbors, foreign and domestic.

Comments, questions or rebuttals to this opinion can be sent to Salim.Y.Ali@live.
mercer.edu.