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Occupy Santa Barbara
updated: Oct 02, 2011, 1:14 PM

By Adam Christopher

I have been authorized to speak for Occupy Santa Barbara, an association of concerned citizens who stand in solidarity with the #OccupyWallStreet protesters in New York and nationwide. We share in their dissatisfaction with corporate and banking malfeasance. We identify with their frustration and bafflement over the federal government's unwillingness or inability to protect its constituents from said malfeasance. We aspire to meet them in their dedication to reason, cooperation, and collaborative decision-making, in order that we as a united people might overcome our troubles and emerge a stronger, better nation.

The formation of Occupy Santa Barbara is not only a symbolic proclamation of frustration with Wall Street's tacit philosophy of profits-over-people, the culture of corporate ascendancy and its ever-increasing stranglehold on our lawfully elected government, the predatory zeal of major banks-which is directly responsible for the collapse of countless businesses, has wreaked havoc on our monetary system, and spelled financial ruin for thousands upon thousands of families. It is also an opportunity to shape a way forward from the straits we as individuals and as a nation have found ourselves in.

Occupy Santa Barbara is a peaceful, non-violent organization comprised of community members from points as disparate as Ojai and Santa Maria, Isla Vista and Orcutt, Vandenburg and Montecito. We are electricians and web developers, teachers and retail workers, baristas and lawyers, union organizers, students, fashion consultants. Some of us are unemployed and destitute. Some of us have achieved material success and earned great respect in the community. We share a deep and abiding affection for Santa Barbara, and we welcome the input of, seek to engage participation from, and offer mutual support to all of its citizens.

Our message is positive. We strongly advocate investment in local businesses, involvement in community organizations, and healthy participation in the political system of Santa Barbara at the city and county levels. Our local concerns range from income disparity, rising property taxes, and the displacement of workers in both the public and private sectors who provide essential services to our community-such as our police and firefighters, our postal workers and letter carriers, our nurses and teachers, our laborers and tradesmen-to unemployment, gang violence and the rising tide of homelessness. We seek an open and positive dialogue, with each other and with our local government, to more fully understand these issues and to work together in finding a mutually beneficial solution.

Our position is nonpartisan. We are Democrats and Republicans, we are radical Socialists and free-market Capitalists, we are limited government, we are welfare supporters, we are woodcrafters and survivalists, we are technophiles and urbanites, we are city mice and country mice. It is not our intent to campaign for or otherwise endorse candidates running for political office-but we do encourage council members, county officials, candidates, and other interested parties in government to join in our discussion, to support our cause, and to reach out to the growing section of the community for whom government appears increasingly incomprehensible and disinterested.

These issues are daunting, but they are not insoluble. Occupy Santa Barbara represents the first few hesitant steps in finding, through thoughtful discussion and consensus-building, a way for the community to improve itself, to prosper economically and thrive creatively, to empower the downtrodden and the dispirited in raising themselves out of despair as well as to inflame the passion and curiosity of those whose hard work and achievement have brought them well-deserved wealth and comfort. In that spirit, we request your endorsement as we hold our inaugural demonstration at 12:30PM on Monday, October 3 in De La Guerra Plaza. More than three hundred citizens have already pledged their attendance; we hope you will add your voices to ours, as your participation is key to the success of Occupy Santa Barbara.

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 219176P	2011-10-02 04:01 PM
Do you 'stand in solidarity with the #OccupyWallStreet ' jerks who shut down the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday? If so, then let's hear your reasoning - though I will never support you. If not then let's hear your condemnation loud and clear.
COMMENT 219180	2011-10-02 04:48 PM
I agree with 176 on the bridge incident. A citizen's right to protest does not include disrupting another citizen from exercising their rights, including the freedom to move about and travel. I completely support civil disobedience, just please stay on the sidewalks and respect other persons' liberties. PS-Capitalism isn't the problem, it's CRIMINAL capitalism and a bankrupt morality that is destroying us from within. It starts with the family-period.
LEM	2011-10-02 04:57 PM
Yesterday's event dubbed "the Battle of Brooklyn Bridge" ensued after the New York Police Department trapped hundreds of demonstrators as they were attempting to cross the Brooklyn Bridge. Demonstrators held strong to their protest demands that they represented the 99% of population suffering as a result of the 2008 economic crisis. Protestors maintained a non-violent stance while occupying the bridge even in the face of aggressive NYPD policing.
COMMENT 219185P	2011-10-02 05:08 PM
Will Radiohead be there?
COMMENT 219186P	2011-10-02 05:13 PM
LEM how come the protesters who took the legal way across didn't get arrested? They "trapped them" after being informed they would be arrested if they kept marching across bridge and disrupting traffic instead of using the pedestrian passway correct. I guess "aggressive" to you is actually enforcing the law after giving people the opportunity and warning to avoid the problem.
COMMENT 219196	2011-10-02 05:48 PM
New York City is 2000+ miles away, so I dunno why some commenters chose to focus on non-local events.
COMMENT 219212	2011-10-02 07:02 PM
Wow! What a bunch of hooey! If your members are as disparate in their backgrounds, views, political persuasions and philosophies as you describe, utopia is unattainable. The mental masturbation is a pleasant diversion, however. Have at it!
COMMENT 219213P	2011-10-02 07:07 PM
29197 the MSM (NYtimes, AP, etcI) I'm sure you hate reported the officers at the head told them if they continued they would be arrested. The officers retreated backwards as the protesters continued forward then reinforcements arrived and they arrested them in the middle. Video w/ audio leaves no doubt that they were told if you continue you will be arrested.
COMMENT 219224	2011-10-02 07:54 PM
Thank you for a thoughtfully written piece. I have been watching, with curiousity, the lack of coverage on this for the last week or so. I am thrilled to know that there is a collective voice here, locally, that is also willing to stand up and work toward a better future.
COMMENT 219244	2011-10-02 09:43 PM
Wow, it's so easy to tell from the comments who are the right-wingers! This op-ed is what made me sign up as a paying member. Hooray Edhat!
COMMENT 219246P	2011-10-02 09:59 PM
Interesting, but it is not at all clear to me what, specific to SB, are the problems to be discussed ... and how they will attempt to be resolved.
COMMENT 219248P	2011-10-02 10:34 PM
The reason that we are focusing on a 'non local event' is shown in the first paragraph of the manifesto "I have been authorized to speak for Occupy Santa Barbara, an association of concerned citizens who stand in solidarity with the #OccupyWallStreet protesters..." Once again, if this bridge takeover is the type of action that this group endorses then this should be made clear to the public.
COMMENT 219252P	2011-10-03 05:46 AM
This group would be a lot more effective concentrating on the Santa Barbara city council election for the next five weeks instead.
COMMENT 219259	2011-10-03 06:30 AM
It appears this is the same peace group that staged walks during the last administration down state st. But have curiously disappeared with the current one. Both OP ED's from ED are to the left of center.
COMMENT 219266	2011-10-03 06:55 AM
Don't Judge, come on down and check it out for yourself. We will be taking back something that belongs to us. Our collective voice and right to assemble. Anything beyond that by someone whom is not an organizer of this event is just "speculating."
COMMENT 219273	2011-10-03 07:11 AM
Heck yeah! I'm so there! Is the only time the right and left wing can come together is during sporting events, major calamities or in agreement that Angry Birds is so awesomely addicting? I don't see how outrage over the financial meltdown and its causes can be a politically polarizing issue. It's not like only Democrats lost their jobs/homes/bank accounts. So, Brooklyn Bridge Schmooklyn Schmidge. Utopia schmutopia. Op Ed Schmop Schmed. Those aren't the points. How about we unplug from the Matrix for a minute to remind ourselves and our government that we're no longer more fired up about Snooki getting punched in the face than we are about the fact that we're actually the ones continually getting punched in the face. This is a joint effort to send a message that we are no longer going to be the battered wife to our government's abusive husband. Although they do remind us all the time how much they love us and need us.... But I guess this is just all my schmopinion.
COMMENT 219306	2011-10-03 08:20 AM
Let's start the revolution then, 219300.
COMMENT 219313P	2011-10-03 08:33 AM
So there!
COMMENT 219322	2011-10-03 08:52 AM
Hey 252, you sound alot like George *****, last name anonymous for privacy purposes. Maybe you should organize your own member only group and see what you can do there... Other unions are sending their members out in solidarity. What are you doing besides trying to $$$ local politicians?
COMMENT 219344P	2011-10-03 09:40 AM
Sorry Adam, can't make it. Gotta work to live and pay taxes. Feel free to join me some time!
COMMENT 219372P	2011-10-03 10:42 AM
That's so funny that the organizers are calling this a combination of the left and the right. This is such a left wing demonstration it is not even funny.
COMMENT 219584P	2011-10-04 06:51 AM
Peacefull protest is good. The writer sounds fine; but reading carefully tells me there is no direction or common frame of reference, other than some weak communist or anti-capitalist ideology, and even that is not very strongly advocated. This appears to be "astro-turf", unlike the teaparty which is real grass-roots. But hey, to each there own...just remember, if you're going to lead people, you need to have somewhere to go.

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