Rally @ the US Capitol #Oct 29 "I am a person! Citibank is not a person!"

http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/EnoughMarch

"We need to get passionate and committed just the way they did in the Civil Rights movement. It has to reach that level where we're so indignant that we'll make sacrifices to fight for our rights, fight for who we are. America is not a plutocracy. Citibank is not a person. We need to say, I AM a person."

"We need to stop the Cycle of Corruption, and put People back in the process...We have to fight laws that create corruption, but it has to be something that's both cultural and deeply personal...We have to stand up and say, 'We're not going to let you take our government."

by Annabel Park

Dear America,

We are in the middle of a great struggle for the soul of our country.

It is easy to read the news each day and become a little more disheartened, if not downright demoralized about our future. Elected members of our government are telling us that we don't deserve disaster relief, clean air, fair wages, healthcare, jobs, or homes. We are not part of the "productive class," and thus the tax dollars we contribute should not be invested in our families or our futures.

Our struggle is often presented as an economic struggle. The top 1% vs the rest of us. In many ways, it is that. But, like many conflicts between people and power throughout history, it is also a struggle for identity, as individuals and as a nation.

The ruling class in America wants to determine what we deserve or don't deserve as human beings. They malign social programs — paid for with our taxpayer money — as "entitlements" that, for some reason, we no longer deserve. In the aftermath of the Wall Street financial crisis, somehow We the People have become less deserving of the fruits of our labor. Instead, our money goes to those who created the crisis — the "money guys" as former Senator Alan Simpson refers to them.

The work we do for a living, our labor, is the foundation of our sense of self-worth as men and women, and as Americans. We should not stand by as our identities are demeaned and devalued while capital is worshiped and praised. More and more, we are being asked to turn against ourselves, against the very people who are the most productive in our society — builders, agricultural workers, teachers, fire fighters, police officers, public workers, and even our veterans — and reward only those who accumulate wealth, media exposure, and power.

The most pernicious aspect of what is happening to America is psychological if not spiritual. The story being told by agenda-based media and corrupt politicians is fraudulent — designed to erode our sense of self-worth. These narratives seek to strip away our dignity so that we don't put up a fight. We are meant to accept the lies and the corruption because we live in a state of fear, because we blame ourselves for our powerlessness, and because we are starting to doubt our sense of reality.

We must recognize how wrong this is and stand up. This struggle is about our dignity, our identity, and our humanity.

In January of 2010, in order to make way for money to permanently replace people in our political process, five Supreme Court justices decided that a corporation is a person, deserving of the same inalienable rights that our ancestors sacrificed so much to defend. The "Citizens United" decision is one of many legal loopholes being used to corrupt our democracy.

We must say to ourselves, in just the way that the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers did, "I AM A PERSON." And, no matter how many times you hear it, Citibank is not a person. Those brave men in Memphis understood that their struggle was about human dignity, and that speaking truth to power needed to start with affirming their sense of self-worth as human beings. I am a man.

As we struggle, we must remember what Martin Luther King, Jr. said in Memphis just days before his death: "I say to you that our goal is freedom, and I believe we're going to get there because — however much she strays from it — the goal of America is freedom!"

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[JsonicL]

@AnnabelPark That's the nature of the political environment, I agree. I read a lot of comments in online news articles, and it's the same everywhere. Regardless, I believe the people commenting on FB could benefit from some guidance.

E.g., the post about "We The People," there was so much negativity as to make the place unpleasant. Why not weigh in? I found this in your mission statement:

"We understand that the federal government is not our enemy, but the expression of our collective will"

[AnnabelPark]

@JsonicL Slowly and with compassion. That is the state of current politics: polarized, cynical and negative. We have to provide an alternative approach and continue to engage people in conversation and bring them into real relationships of respect.

[JsonicL]

Annabel,

I want to pull out two point from this video that you made:

1. "It's really about building that inclusive community."

2. "We dont really have a Mubarek, because we have a legal system that we want to change."

If you look through the comments on the Coffee Party Facebook page, you may notice there is a paralyzing degree of cynical negativity. Typically, people are targeting specific politicians or parties, which I believe is what the CP was trying to rise above.

How do we change this?

[Sarge714]

I’m rooting for you guys, but your tactics are doomed to failure.

You’re fighting an entrenched enemy who out guns you with a frontal assault.

You need to out maneuver them and use their own energy against them. Their arrogance has given you the pieces, use them dang it.

Please, sit down and think outside the box and come up with a new approach. All these marches/rallies do is give them something to laugh at because they are not directly affected.

[creative1overhere]

Copy Cat? of what? Tea and Coffee is very different. We don't mind a little Tea in the Coffee. The Coffee Party has been around for a while....non-violent, non-partisan. What's in a name anyway when the concept is correct? See you in DC?

[satyadinamori]

Being a coffee party is too much of a copy cat .Please come up with a more original name The concepts ae correst! I agree!

[satyadinamori]

Being a coffee party is too much of a copy cat .Please come up with a more original name

[northstar789]

Well done! Thanks for the clear perspective.

[xyzoneon]

Too bad this movement doesn't have the Koch bros. to bus people in.