[Imc-makerspace] Statement of Purpose and Intents

[Colten Jackson]

Good morning all,

Right now (2am) on the front page of reddit.com, which will be seen by a few
hundred thousand people tomorrow, there are Marines and soldiers of the Army
posting that they're headed to Wall St in their dress blues (formal suits)
to stand between policemen and the protesters.

thread here: Calling all Military Veterans of Reddit. We took an oath to
protect the people and the constitution of the United States of America.
Meet me on Wall
St.<http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/kwtjl/calling_all_military_veterans_of_reddit_we_took/>

There's individuals posting pictures (again getting to the front page,
originating on pics.reddit.com) with handwritten letters explaining their
situation and how they got screwed over, being ended with the phrase, "I am
the 99%."

This is a large jump in popularity among these posts related to
OccupyWallSt. A lot of people are seeing the movement for the first time,
and they're developing their perspective on it.

The last thing I want is for the perspective to be swayed (or echoed) by
CNN, FOX et. al. I want the media people get to be coming from fellow
countrymen. I know whoever meets up tomorrow can get some good articles
written about the possibilities and need for this movement, but I don't know
the best way to get people to hear us instead of their TVs. I'd love to hear
your ideas.

The first thing I'm doing in the morning (after sending a few introductory
emails out) is trying my damnedest to open lines of communication with other
IMCs and makerspaces across the country so we can have a spread out,
national movement going where we can get ideas and make suggestions to each
other of how to reach people in our cities. I think there's a lot of power
in having a local person contextualize it for a locality. Think: "I don't
see what this protest in NYC has to do with me" vs "I heard on the local
radio this morning about how people in this community can get together and
come up with a list of their own grievances to send to wall street and DC"

that's the ultimate goal here - 2 way communication between the communities
across the country and the epicenters of protest. I want democratically-made
decisions being made in a hundred cities being shouted out of megaphones on
wall st and on the national mall (assuming that's where the DC occupation
lands).

All the while, people who have excluded themselves from the political
process out of frustration and/or apathy can get involved in direct
democracy action and experience that democratic process - and see how far
removed from it we are when we're presented with nothing more than
Democratic and Republican candidates to vote for when elections come around.


With that, I'm still aiming to be in the makerspace at 9am. Please stop by
and we can organize from there.

Add me on skype if you like and I'll have my laptop set on auto-answer so
you can stop by anytime via video chat. Handle is 'jazzyjackson'

Can't wait to meet up all you.
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