Not far up the light rail here in Minnesota is a group of perhaps five or six people at their lowest and a few hundred on the nice days, holding up signs and shouting their concerns about a society that has forgotten about the collective in an attempt to wake those around them to the corruption that has infiltrated every level of government and regulatory agency.  They’re good people with good hearts and a worthy, important goal and I’ve spent some time with them (including rainy nights in a sleeping bag), but nothing recently.  Why, with my support of many of their most popular goals, am I not participating in the occupation today?

America is an interesting place.  I read anecdotes on a daily basis from our European brothers and sisters incredulously recounting how they saw American flags on cars and houses all up and down Main Streets and we even said a Pledge of Allegiance to our flag (which, for Americans who don’t know, is considered crass and xenophobic by many non-Americans).  We have created a life where you can get by under normal circumstances, which pacifies, but you can’t get ahead in most social situations and you can never be prepared for a crash.  We’re on a comfortable trapeze without a net but most Americans never look down and consider what would happen if we fell tomorrow.

With the occupiers, though, it’s different.  These folks see major wrongs within our society that they protest because they actually want real, tangible change.  They see that the net’s missing.  They are aware that despite its comforts, the trapeze of the working class is frayed and ready to snap.  For millions of Americans, it already has, and the outright cockiness of those who had been screwing with the ropes enrages them.  They saw the bankers pulling it apart, thread by thread, but nobody would listen until their own personal ropes frayed enough to finally break.

Why was it so difficult to make everyone look down at the lack of a net, or up at the ruling class working to fray the ropes?  Over the past thirty years, a cadre of influential charlatans such as Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan have pushed an Atlas Shrugged-derived concept of self-righteousness, ruthlessness and carelessness onto American society.  They ushered in an era where each individual was taught that, according to Objectivism, “the proper moral purpose of one’s life is the pursuit of one’s own happiness.”  This damaged manner of thinking has become an alarmingly popular attribute even within the struggling working class, despite the dismissal of Ayn Rand’s book in 1957 as a hateful lesson in greed.

So we have a small number of compassionate, altruistic folks fighting a populace of greed and self-interest.  The challenge here is clear, but as momentum continued to build I became quite excited that this was our time.  Indeed, Massachusetts last week sued five large banks and a foreclosure mill for their fraudulent practices in that state as more people became sympathetic to a cause that featured Marines, former police chiefs, elderly ladies and librarians being pepper sprayed, assaulted with rubber bullets, and locked up in jail beaten and bloodied by a police force that forgot who they were supposed to serve and protect.

Sadly, there’s an issue with the Occupy movement that is making it difficult to build momentum.  Democracy is messy and I realize that.  However, democracy is not about ending power structure or always having unanimity.  Democracy needs representatives, branding, an organizational structure, and some concrete, direct messaging.  We aren’t going to accomplish anything by requiring a unanimous decision or by maintaining an unorganized structure with no means to release official statements or direct demands.

What the Occupy movement needs right now is structure.  They do not need to limit voices to do that; the leadership structure should be designed in a way that the individuals on camera are always representing the majority will of the people at the camp and will be quickly replaced if that doesn’t happen.  As long as the people control the message, it is not inappropriate to have a specific group of individuals delivering it.  We need trained media personalities, trained public relations experts, copywriters, producers… we need more structural organization for keeping the parks looking tidy.  We need to look like organized, clean, hard-working and respectful Americans.

What we need next is a voting structure that allows everyone involved to participate but does not require unanimous decisions.  Democracy is about majority, not unanimity.  Issues should be brought forward, explained in detail, voted on and passed or failed based on majority rule.  With this, we would be able to more quickly develop concrete demands and demonstrate that we are not on the fringe of society.  We are organized and ready to ensure our demands are met.

Then, finally, we need to focus on ONE DEMAND at a time.  We can’t have ten different campaigns going at once.  Base it one majority vote.  It’s a simple process:

• Collect the proposed demands and hold a majority vote on each to determine if the group supports it
• Hold a vote on each passed demand to ask if it should be the first demand
• The one with the highest percentage of “yes” votes becomes the first demand until it is resolved
• Hold another vote on each remaining passed demand to determine the next action

A few years back, I wrote this blog on some of the problems with the concept of Black Friday.  Fast forward to 2011 and things have only become worse, but there’s a glimmer of hope that the tides are finally turning on this hyperconsumerist day of madness.

First, a reminder from Wikipedia of what we saw in 2008, weeks before my earlier blog post was written:

In 2008 a crowd of approximately 2,000 shoppers in Valley Stream, New York, waited outside for the 5:00 a.m. opening of the local Wal-Mart. As opening time approached the crowd grew anxious and when the doors were opened the crowd pushed forward, breaking the door down, and trampling a 34 year old employee to death. The shoppers did not appear concerned with the victim’s fate, expressing refusal to halt their stampede when other employees attempted to intervene and help the injured employee, complaining that they had been waiting in the cold and were not willing to wait any longer. Shoppers had begun assembling as early as 9:00 the evening before. Even when police arrived and attempted to render aid to the injured man, shoppers continued to pour in, shoving and pushing the officers as they made their way into the store.

Quite literally, these shoppers killed to get a “deal.”  And they did it in cold blood, with no regrets, and didn’t even let it interrupt their shopping rhythm.

Now back to 2011.  Not only have retailers continued to embrace this faux holiday despite the dangers, they’ve increased the breadth and scope of what it means to participate in Black Friday.  Last year’s “innovators” opened at midnight.  This year, Target and Best Buy have followed suit and Wal-Mart is opening at 10pm on Thanksgiving day itself.

Step back and think for a second.  Name three days a year when families all get together and spend time with each other.  If you said “Christmas, Thanksgiving and.. uh..” you would be correct.  Two days a year are reserved moreso than any others for family gatherings, time to be thankful, time to reflect on life.  Entire industries come screeching to a halt because family is more important than profit on these occasions.  Retail employees give up their evenings and weekends as well as most major holidays without complaint, but Thanksgiving and Christmas have been sacred.

This year, retail employees are expected to report to thousands of stores across the country at 9pm on Thanksgiving day to work ten, twelve, sometimes sixteen hour shifts. When the family gets together in the late afternoon and dinner is served that evening, how are these employees supposed to be able to show up for a sixteen hour shift right after dinner?  The only logical answer, of course, is saying “I’m lucky to have a job in this economy, so I will sleep instead of spending Thanksgiving with my family.”

And that’s the pushback we’re seeing now.  The petition for Target to end midnight openings on Black Friday has reached 80,000 signatures as of this hour, resulting in media coverage and interviews with the creator of the petition.  At the same time, it has inspired a lot of people in other industries (which get Thursday and Friday off every year) to launch counter-petitions directly targeting the petition creator, such as the cleverly titled “Anthony Hardwick: Stop trying to petition Target, and go to work like a normal American.”

Someone doesn’t know much about the labor movement.

We’re seeing a repeat of every social issue to play out in the past year happening again with Black Friday.  The people are beginning to raise their voice; 2011 will be remembered as the year the people started fighting back around the world, from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street.  However, as people begin to raise their voices, they’re meeting some unlikely adversaries:  Other victims who prefer to continue being victimized for whatever strange reason instead of asserting themselves for a better society.

Why would someone demand that employees such as Anthony Hardwick (or Rick Melaragni, who created the Best Buy version of this same petition) “go to work like a normal American” and “start appreciating that you even have a job?”  Simple… because they’re Temporarily Embarrassed Millionaires, and as soon as the universe corrects this injustice, they will rule with an iron fist, so they don’t want the people to start getting out of line when those millions are about to start rolling in any day now.

“I feel terrible,” Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn reportedly said at a conference. “We were going to be open at a much more civilized hour, like 3 or 4 (a.m.).”

Then do it.  It’s that simple.  Say it and make it so.

Need a more robust plan?  (Or more likely, need a more robust plan for next year since it’s likely too late this year?)

Issue a press release, match it up with an impassioned 30 second TV spot that also gets placement front and center on the website.  Tweet it and Facebook it.  Here’s what it will say:

“Over the years, Black Friday has grown into a monster.  Obviously, it was good for business, but when five a.m. became midnight, our employees spoke up. Retail is a challenging world. Our team gives up evenings, weekends, and most holidays to provide you with world class customer service. However, Thanksgiving is not negotiable. Our employees will be spending Thanksgiving with their families and we will open at 9 a.m. on Black Friday.  We hope to see you then.”

Don’t think it’s a good idea because it’s not what the industry is doing?  Screw the industry, be a leader.  Don’t follow.  Be bold, focus on the employee and customer experiences, ignore the trends and the bottom line will take care of itself.  That’s how confidence in your people works, that’s how leading the industry works.

Remember… if it doesn’t change from the top, it will change from the bottom, so it might be less messy to take the leap willingly.

Hello, friends!  It has been some time since my last blog as I have been preparing for and attending OccupyMN, the solidarity movement in Minneapolis with the Occupy Wall Street protest.  I am home on a recharge/shower/lunch break and wanted to take a few moments to express my personal list of proposed demands for our movement.  It will not be representative of the others’ thoughts in any way… this is my work and mine alone and I would be happy to see the movement adopt all or parts of it, but this blog does not represent the movement in any way.

Generation of Funds

In order to fulfill what I believe are the obligations of government (summed up nicely by FDR’s proposed second Bill of Rights), the government will need proper funding.  Part of this will be in the form of cuts and more will be in the form of progressive and simplified taxation.  We’ll start with taxation.

Simplified and Progressive Taxation

First and foremost, anyone making below $40,000 plus an additional $10,000 per dependent should not pay any sort of taxes.  With all the talk about “broadening the tax base,” we cannot forget how much it costs just to provide shelter, food, education and health care.  Hard-working Americans cannot “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” unless they have something to work with.  This is a fair and honest dollar amount that would be adjusted based on the cost of living each year.

Secondly, there would be no tax-exempt status for religious organizations or any non-profit which pays their CEO more than 50 times times the national minimum wage.  Religious organizations should not be exempt from taxes as this demonstrates government sponsorship and endorsement of religion, which provides an appearance of impropriety related to the government’s First Amendment mandate to remain separated from religious matters.  Any organization paying their CEO more than fifty times minimum wage is not living the spirit of non-profit.

Third, taxation on the individual would be handled as a sales tax.  All items and services would have a 25% sales tax of which 5% would be distributed by the federal government to states, cities, townships and school districts on a democratically-approved scale and basis.  The only items exempt from sales taxes would be:

• Primary shelter rent or mortgage within reasonable limits as designated per local markets
• Primary vehicle within reasonable limits and mass transit
• Consumables (food, groceries)
• Health care products, services, prescriptions
• Educational tuition, fees, books, shelter

For most of the existence of countries, patriotism has been defined generally as a love of one’s country, an emotional connection and an action in the general welfare of one’s country.  Patriots saw vast potential in their country and worked hard to ensure it met the full potential.  Finding opportunities to make the country even better was always a central tenet of the pride of a patriot.

Sadly, we’ve traded this for a fake patriotism in America, one that says you absolutely must not do any of the following things:

• Criticize the military or the broader government
• Show anything beyond contempt for an “enemy”
• Support the rights of minorities or immigrants
• Profess that peace is better than war
• Profess that any economic system other than capitalism is even an option
• Speak against religion, or more specifically, Christianity

If you do any of those things, you are no longer a patriot.  It seems odd, then, that the first patriots in this country did all those things in big heaping helpings.  They consistently questioned government and military action, participated in diplomacy, supported equality and peace, ran an economy with strong socialist leanings and held religion to be a matter kept as far from the state as possible.  Where did the people go wrong?

I hear references to 9/11, troops, or capitalism every day.  Never in a negative light, of course.  When I interject that perhaps our biggest problems in this country are due to the aggression of the military, the inequality of the free market, or the obsession with a small-scale (by international standards) terror attack from over a decade ago, my company is typically aghast.  The look of horror on the face of an average American who just encountered the suggestion that Marx had a very sound strategy outlined in the Communist Manifesto is beyond words and, honestly, would be humorous if not for the level of historical ignorance on display.

You know who loved Marx?  Abraham Lincoln.  He found the writings of Marx to be enlightened and intellectually stimulating.  He felt that the tenets of Marx’s form of socialism worked very well in the American economic landscape.  You can even go all the way back to Glenn Beck’s “Common Sense” buddy Thomas Paine and read Agrarian Justice for a look at how socialism helped shape our country’s origins clear back to the Founding Fathers.  However, say that word today and the average American’s face contorts as if you’ve just told them that the Jerry Springer Show isn’t real.

The point is that maybe I’m wrong about Marxism, about peace, about our military fighting for imperialism and political ideology instead of defending any discernible freedom over the past two decades… but in a country that places so much emphasis on free speech, why am I castigated for expressing what I consider patriotic statements?  Acknowledging these things could carry the country in a different and better direction, but many in this country refuse to acknowledge that anything about this country could possibly be wrong… and how is that patriotism?

Einstein said the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting different results.  When things fail here, we often change some of the terminology we use to describe the process then just try it again.  We don’t adjust, we don’t improve.  Suggestions of improvement using successful models from elsewhere are rebuffed with “well you should just move to Denmark if you hate America so much.”  But that’s the entire point… I wouldn’t be trying to improve a country I hated.

We’re losing our way and the time to revert to the old form of patriotism is now.  We need to openly question our government, our military, our economy, our corporations… we need to constantly ask what we can do to make the country better.  Anything less is unpatriotic.

(On that note, I’ll be talking about something related to this blog post next time I do a Rage entry… Occupy Wall Street is next on the agenda!)