Occupy Lexington — Noon, 9.29.2011, come on down!

Dear Lexington…

Thursday is your day.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that for over a week hundreds have camped out in New York City at Wall Street demanding them fancy folks who wrecked the country pay the price that’s due them.

Obviously not everyone can head up to NYC to join in, so across the country simultaneous protests and encampments are springing up.

Here in Lexington, that starts at Noon, Thursday, September 29th.

Who: The 99% in Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street
When: Beginning at 12:00 Noon, September 29th — until ???

We are union members, students, teachers, veterans, families, the unemployed and underemployed. We are all races, sexes and creeds. We are the young and the old. We are the majority! We are the 99 percent. And we will no longer be silent.

As members of the 99 percent, we will occupy Lexington @JP Morgan Chase as a symbolic gesture of our discontent with the current economic and political climate and as an example of a better world to come. Therefore we invite the public, our fellow 99 percent, to join us in a peaceful protest BEGINNING on THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 29th at NOON in front of the JP Morgan Chase Bank building 201 East Main Street, Lexington, KY.

This is a call for individuals and families, community and advocacy groups to stand in solidarity.

***This protest will go on as long as we can maintain it. They have been occupying Wall Street for over a week with many arrests but they have not given up. We will not give up!***

If you can be there at Noon… be there.

If you can’t be there until 3PM… come then.

If you have to work til’ 5PM… then come after work.

If you’ve got time free on Thursday evening… come on down.

Whenever you decide to join… come in peace.

Now, some folks — both Left and Right, sadly — have mocked Occupy Wall Street. There’s plenty one could say about protests and protestors and, well, there was a pretty good counterview on this topic in an open-invitation to join the Occupation earlier today, so here’s that:

To be fair, the scene in Liberty Plaza seems messy and chaotic. But it’s also a laboratory of possibility, and that’s the beauty of democracy. As opposed to our monoculture world, where political life is flipping a lever every four years, social life is being a consumer and economic life is being a timid cog, the Wall Street occupation is creating a polyculture of ideas, expression and art.

Yet while many people support the occupation, they hesitate to fully join in and are quick to offer criticism. It’s clear that the biggest obstacles to building a powerful movement are not the police or capital – it’s our own cynicism and despair.

Perhaps their views were colored by the New York Times article deriding protestors for wishing to “pantomime progressivism” and “Gunning for Wall Street with faulty aim.” Many of the criticisms boil down to “a lack of clear messaging.”

But what’s wrong with that? A fully formed movement is not going to spring from the ground. It has to be created. And who can say what exactly needs to be done? We are not talking about ousting a dictator; though some say we want to oust the dictatorship of capital.

There are plenty of sophisticated ideas out there: end corporate personhood; institute a “Tobin Tax” on stock purchases and currency trading; nationalize banks; socialize medicine; fully fund government jobs and genuine Keynesian stimulus; lift restrictions on labor organizing; allow cities to turn foreclosed homes into public housing; build a green energy infrastructure.

But how can we get broad agreement on any of these? If the protesters came into the square with a pre-determined set of demands it would have only limited their potential. They would have either been dismissed as pie in the sky – such as socialized medicine or nationalize banks – or if they went for weak demands such as the Buffett Rule their efforts would immediately be absorbed by a failed political system, thus undermining the movement.

So yes, sure, you can make up a ton of excuses for not getting involved and for not coming down to the JPMorganChaseManhattanBearStearnsWashingtonMutual Bank tower on Main Street and joining the crowd.

But you could also just come down. Bring a chair. Bring a book. Bring a sign. Sit outside, meet your neighbors, have a ball.

Here’s the scene from day 11 up in New York.

It’s messy, it’s chaotic, but it also looks fun. Like an adventure. Something different — a curiousity and a spectacle. So, dear Lexington, come on down.

This is a peaceful event and as the facebook invitation says, families and people of all ages are welcome and are likely to be there.

And there should be absolutely no reason for any scenes or stories like this:

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(And to be clear: the good Lexington folks who work at this Chase building are not the responsible party. The ire is focused at Wall Street in NYC and at the tippytop folks up at JPMCBSWaMu HQ and their ilk. So everyone should be all smiles and friendly waves.)