December 18, 2011
Staying in Florida for the time being. I just got really disillusioned with everything last night after Occupy Fort Lauderdale. There was this family.. I have a video of them that I’m trying to compress enough to post their story some place.
But it was heartbreaking and just knowing that there were thousands and thousands of people like that around the United States broke my heart. I cried. I cried when I met a waitress whose mother’s house was in foreclosure.
It’s just a bit much sometimes, but I’m learning to take it. Listening to them and telling other people helps make it easier, because it feels like it’s not all in vain then. That they aren’t suffering in the silence and darkness. Not that I can help them, but I can treat them like human beings. My high sensitivity is my greatest strength but also my hugest downfall sometimes. I thought going to Seattle and focusing on the ports would keep me far enough removed from the human cost of the financial tragedy and utter greed
. Running away isn’t the answer, though. I was also just reflecting on the year as a whole. A year of learning many things both as a person in my own personal world, and seeing all of the revolutions around the world. I hate seeing people being kept down, being trampled, being denied. No one loves it, I know, and that goes without saying, but it’s awful to feel powerless when I feel like I should be doing something, anything. But I do what I can, and I know I can’t save the world. 2011 was the worst year of my life, because in many ways, I think it was the worst year of the past 27 years this world has seen.
I don’t think we’ve ever seen this kind of utter calamity in my generation. My happiest moment was when the NDP became the official opposition for the first time in Canadian history — it felt like anything was possible and like dreams could come true. But then my hero Jack Layton died two weeks before parliament reconvened after the summer, and it felt like the dream had died. That we’d never get to see that wonderful Canada. But it also spurred a generation to get involved, to follow in his footsteps. The revolutions prevailed in some countries.
The greed has been exposed and everyone knows who the bank$ters are, even if they are still living the high life. The world changed and I choose to take that with a hopeful and full heart. There’s no place in a bright future if there’s anger, fear, and despair. Occupy showed me that the dream didn’t die with Jack Layton and that we can, in fact, change the world with hope, love, and optimism. And this is how I choose to close my year, by getting rid of those things and replacing them with hope. The dream lives on. People aren’t inherently bad, and the world isn’t scary if you don’t let it beat you into submission.
But it was heartbreaking and just knowing that there were thousands and thousands of people like that around the United States broke my heart. I cried. I cried when I met a waitress whose mother’s house was in foreclosure.
It’s just a bit much sometimes, but I’m learning to take it. Listening to them and telling other people helps make it easier, because it feels like it’s not all in vain then. That they aren’t suffering in the silence and darkness. Not that I can help them, but I can treat them like human beings. My high sensitivity is my greatest strength but also my hugest downfall sometimes. I thought going to Seattle and focusing on the ports would keep me far enough removed from the human cost of the financial tragedy and utter greed
. Running away isn’t the answer, though. I was also just reflecting on the year as a whole. A year of learning many things both as a person in my own personal world, and seeing all of the revolutions around the world. I hate seeing people being kept down, being trampled, being denied. No one loves it, I know, and that goes without saying, but it’s awful to feel powerless when I feel like I should be doing something, anything. But I do what I can, and I know I can’t save the world. 2011 was the worst year of my life, because in many ways, I think it was the worst year of the past 27 years this world has seen.
I don’t think we’ve ever seen this kind of utter calamity in my generation. My happiest moment was when the NDP became the official opposition for the first time in Canadian history — it felt like anything was possible and like dreams could come true. But then my hero Jack Layton died two weeks before parliament reconvened after the summer, and it felt like the dream had died. That we’d never get to see that wonderful Canada. But it also spurred a generation to get involved, to follow in his footsteps. The revolutions prevailed in some countries.
The greed has been exposed and everyone knows who the bank$ters are, even if they are still living the high life. The world changed and I choose to take that with a hopeful and full heart. There’s no place in a bright future if there’s anger, fear, and despair. Occupy showed me that the dream didn’t die with Jack Layton and that we can, in fact, change the world with hope, love, and optimism. And this is how I choose to close my year, by getting rid of those things and replacing them with hope. The dream lives on. People aren’t inherently bad, and the world isn’t scary if you don’t let it beat you into submission.
“Don’t let them tell you that it can’t be done.”
There won’t be Occupy Time’s Square on New Year’s Eve anymore because I have to save money for the Federal Leadership Convention in Toronto in March, but there WILL be Occupy Miami. And from there, it will be a great year. My 27th year will be a good one.
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