Occupy America Occupy America

Editor’s Welcome Letter

Our media thinks we are stupid. It avoids history. It simplifies complex situations. It does not link its sources and fails to explain its reasoning. It preaches hate and divides the people. It bends the truth so much it breaks. And it ignores the poor and working classes of America completely, speaking only about them and never with them.

Occupy America is an experiment in making a different kind of news. Each issue revolves around a central theme and offers a rich analysis of its core questions. Facts are embraced. Conflict is treated honestly. And we write from the perspective of the workers. Of the poor. Of those oppressed by race, gender, and more. Of those who yearn for freedom and a dignified life for all. Of those whose existence everyday produces the nation we are proud to be a part of.

We are concerned with three big questions:

  1. Who are we, as a nation?
  2. What do we want?
  3. How do we plan to get it?

While we have an orientation and a perspective, we do not subscribe to any one “ism.” We do not speak as authorities, but simply as individuals. We may think we are right, but know we could be wrong. All views and all people are welcome. One issue may not agree with the next, and we see this as positive. Only a full commitment to exploring these questions – regardless of how surprising the answers may be – will give us the nation we deserve.

We want you. To read. To write. To think. And to share. This past year the nation rocked as Occupy protests spread from coast to coast. Those who were affected by decisions asserted their right to be in control of those decisions. People gathered in public spaces, discussed common problems, and came together. Horizontal democracy, along with its complications and failures, emerged in fits and starts.

And then the police came. Never forget, what could not be tolerated was Americans coming together and discussing in public how to create the country they want to live in.

The mainstream media searched endlessly for a spokesperson or a leader. When they could not find a singular demand they attacked the movements as confused. And continuously they tried to push the protests “outside” the norm, revealing their guilt nakedly: democracy was a threat.

They did not understand what was happening. We are not the mainstream media, and we will not conduct ourselves in the same fashion. The movement is you and us. It is everyone and no one. The movement and the nation are the same. By the people, for the people.

We have only one audience: everyone. We have only one demand: everything. We deserve nothing less.