October 7, 2011
Dear Extended Families,
As many of you may know, I’ve been getting super excited about all this “We Are the 99%” and “Occupy Wall Street” stuff. Coincidentally, as these protests have been spreading we’re covering the American, French, and Haitian revolutions in the community college history classes I teach. Examining past revolutions has inspired me to remember that “the arc of history is long,” as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, and that things can and have changed rapidly and even recently.
Why I’m Supporting The 99% Movement
Because I truly, deeply love you all. Some of you have second (even third) homes, and some of you are struggling to keep the lights on and food on the table. Some of you have had to come out of retirement and go back to work to make ends meet. Some of you don’t have health insurance. Some of you are in massive debt. Some of you have millions in the bank and investments. But ALL of you are hard workers and good people. I don’t think it’s fair that some of you in my extended family have so much and others have so little. I want to see a more fair global and national system where we can be unified, not divided into haves and have-nots, even in one extended family.
Because I’m working two part-time teaching jobs and don’t have sight of a full-time teaching job. My boss recently told me that five years ago I would have had a full-time job by now but because of budget cuts, there are very few positions and hundreds of people competing for each one. Nego (my partner) and I struggle to make ends meet at the end of every month. Last week we had no money for groceries for several days but luckily had cans and stuff in the freezer to eat until I got paid. We budget really carefully. And we’re having an easier time than many.
Because I only have health insurance for the first time since graduating college through Nego’s nursing job. But if the NC Marriage Amendment to the state constitution passes, I might not have health insurance again. After a major health scare at the beginning of the summer (that thankfully amounted to nothing), I realize how important this is.
Because I have over $40,000 in student loan debt. Some of you will have no debt when you graduate and will even have a trust fund and major inheritance. Some of you will have more massive debt than I do. And some of you haven’t been able to consider college because of the cost. I think it’s not right or fair because you are all wonderful people.
Because last month Nego had to choose between paying for a doctor’s visit for her ongoing digestive issues and making her student loan payment. And she’s a nurse who is supposed to be “middle class.” But we still have to make these kinds of hard choices. And we don’t even have to choose between food for a child and the water bill, like some of our friends and neighbors do.
Because the stresses of our everyday lives—money, health, bills, debt—seem so personal and individual, but when you really start talking to folks it’s clear it’s a major pattern and we are not alone. We are the 99%, we are the majority.
Because poverty didn’t start in 2008. Many of my close friends, people whom I consider family, have been struggling since long before 2008. Just because more white and formerly middle-class people are feeling the crunch now doesn’t mean poverty started with the financial crisis. Even though I’m struggling too, I know I’m also privileged.
Because most of my amazing, inspiring students are struggling more than any human being should have to struggle. Two semesters ago, a straight-A student dropped off the map, stopped turning work in, and missed a bunch of classes. She finally came to me and told me that she and her adorable three-year-old were living in their car and struggling to eat each meal. And that’s just one story.
Because I want the four-year old daughter of one of my best friends to grow up in a world where her spirit can blossom. She is an African-American girl who is one of the people I most enjoy spending time with in the world. She makes me laugh. She’s so kind. And I am so afraid of what this world may do to her. I don’t want to be scared. I want everything for her.
Because many of the most inspiring leaders of our human race have already warned us. In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said:
We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism, and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered. A nation can flounder as readily in the face of moral and spiritual bankruptcy as it can through financial bankruptcy.
Because I believe this financial crisis is not our fault. I do believe actual people, banks, and corporations, the 1%, made it happen because of their obsession with a “thing-oriented society.” They have gotten richer while most of us have gotten poorer. This is the way capitalism works, and I don’t like it one bit. We will all benefit from a shift to a “person-oriented society.”
Because it’s been a long time since I could say “Another World Is Possible” and actually mean it. But right now I really believe it, and I don’t want to let go of that.
Because I believe our country has not dealt with its legacy of slavery, racism, Native land theft, and genocide. To feel spiritually whole, I believe those of us whose ancestors were not the targets need to deal with that history. I believe we can heal.
Because I believe the lives of my younger cousins, my four-year-old friend, my nieces and nephew, and all of my family are just as valuable as the lives of people in Afghanistan, prison, Iraq, death row, Mexico, immigrant detention centers, Sudan, Guatemala, and everywhere around the world. I believe we are all human, and I want a system that treats us all that way, that doesn’t kill us quickly or slowly.
Because I believe those of us/you with more privilege (white, middle and owning class, male privilege, heterosexual privilege, able-bodied, citizenship) have so much to gain from this movement, so much to gain from change. Even in the 1%, we worry about money, about security, about the future. Wealth and privilege are not actually reducing our anxiety. It’s possible to have a fulfilled, secure, joyful life without all the stuff.
Because the situation we’re in is both new and not new. There have been haves and have-nots for a long time—but the wealth divide is greater now than it has been for a very long time (if not ever) in the United States. This economic direction is not sustainable. My mom and I were talking about this the other day. She said, “It’s like we’re all sitting on a runaway train. Some of us may be sitting in first class and some of us are in coach (and some are squeezed in to the baggage compartment). But regardless of where we’re seated, the train is on a collision course unless we make some major changes soon.” I think we ALL have an interest in making a change!
Because we already have or soon will reach peak oil. We are experiencing climate change. And we are killing this Earth. The Earth is the runaway train. Unless we make a big change now, it doesn’t matter how much stuff we have. Eventually this planet will not be able to sustain our children and their children.
Because what could be worth more than our humanity? Our spirits? We have the chance to come out of the places where we feel isolated and alone. We now have a chance to join with the 99%. We have the opportunity to ignore the 1% voices in our head—the fear, the doubt, the scarcity, the idea that we have to do it alone and have to get ours and just take care of the people we know. We will be better for it.
Because I have a feeling that all of you smart, thoughtful people have your own ideas about how this world could be better for all of us, your own reasons to get involved. What do you have to gain? How could this movement lead to a better and more fulfilling life for you and your family? I think this magical moment gives us a chance to hear each other, to dialogue. I want to know what you think!
Capitalism, and particularly the latest form that’s been accelerating since 2008, reminds me of a cruel game of musical chairs. The people at the top keep taking away more and more chairs, so there’s more and more of us fighting to sit down in fewer and fewer chairs, but we just end up mad at each other because that’s who we see in front of our faces.
I am filled with a desire for the day when all of us in my mixed-class extended family can stand together with all the other families around the world and look back at these terrible hundreds of years of human history, roll our eyes, breathe a sigh of relief, and say, “I sure am glad that’s over. What were we all fighting about any way?” And like children after a playground scuffle, move on and get back to the work of building relationships and connections and a positive future for us all.
Yes, I’m idealistic. If you look at any positive change that has happened in the past, it was usually led by idealists with big imaginations. It was fierce hope that gave people the bravery to take the risks that brought about change. The people a few years younger than I who kicked this movement off have reignited my hope, and I’m so thankful for it. I don’t know what comes next or what the solution is, but I have a deep faith that dialogue and democratic process can help us figure it out. And that not knowing all the answers is not a good reason to not start trying to shift things. As the Zapatistas in Mexico say, “We walk while questioning.”
Much Love to ALL of you,
Isabell
Isabell Moore is an adjunct professor in Greensboro, NC, who teaches history part time at the local community college and Women and Gender Studies part time at a local university. She is a member of Southerners on New Ground and Project South, serves on the National Committee of the War Resisters League, and has worked with Resource Generation. She is honored to be a part of the Occupy Greensboro group.
