HELL YEAH!

HELL YEAH! is what I hope will turn out to be a semi-regular feature on this blog, where I have the opportunity to highlight something positive in the world.  Today, I want to bring two recent positive developments to light.

The first is the Occupy Wall Street protest movement, which began on September 17th and is still going strong despite police oppression and media blackouts.  This is the kind of protest which may well have a snowball effect—rare enough these days—and if it does, that may lead to something like a possibility for positive change.  I don’t expect the Wall Street crowd to give a shit what a bunch of anti-corporate kids say.  Nor do I expect their bought-and-sold lackeys in the government to give a shit, either.  As for the cops, I imagine they do give a shit—it probably twists their guts to see so little respect for authority.  The media is paid not to give a shit about this kind of protest movement, as opposed to those sponsored by the right-wing Tea Party, which is the kind of protest corporations love.  But I wonder if, in this time of jobless recession, shredded social safety nets and tightened wallets for damn near everyone who’s not filthy rich, this is the kind of protest that the majority just might give a shit about.  If we can spread the word about Occupy Wall Street, it just might take off.  So I’m glad some of us do care.  It could be an inspiration to the rest of us.

The second positive development is a request by Ralph Nader and others to find and field six candidates for President on the left.  They’re not meant to actually challenge Obama in a primary—small chance of that happening—but to create a venue for debates that will poke and prod and maybe even shame the President into tacking to the left.  I’m not convinced that this strategy will work even if the debates take place.  Obama seems pretty solidly conservative-centrist-right to me, even if he doesn’t to every Republican who calls him a Socialist (on what grounds, I’d like to know!).  But there may be some room for change in the guy—he’s smart, after all, and his (in)famous predilection for practical politics may work in our favor if we can convince him that the left is strong enough and numerous enough to deserve to be heard.

These movements and strategies may not accomplish anything, but I have to celebrate the fact that they’re being tried at all.  The audacity of hope, you know.  Funny how even Obama hasn’t made me cynical about hope yet.  So let’s all hope I have cause to write a lot more of these HELL YEAH! posts.  

--Joshua Hendrickson