Guy Fawkes Day

It is indeed the 5th of November - but no Gunpowder Treason and Plot this year.  Instead, there are other protests - against our corporate banking institutions who take our money, use it to fund the oppression of the poor (Sub-prime mortgage crisis, anyone?), waste it on increasingly byzantine speculative financial deals (see point #2 again), and then demand to be bailed out with our tax money.  Thousands of people are pulling their money from their banking institutions today and moving them to community banks, where their money can be used for local investment projects.


If this were happening even a month later, I would be joining them...and probably will join them here in a few weeks when loan money clears.  If we're going to sit around and talk about how awful these big corporate interests are, and how they contribute to the economic wreck that is life in the U.S. now by continuing to plunder the general public in the name of increasing the already bulging profit margins of the wealthiest people in this nation, then the very least we can do is take the reasonable steps that we can to guarantee that our money stays out of this process to the largest extent possible.  Easiest way - don't do your banking with Bank of America, Chase, etc.  Take your money out, and find a local bank or credit union.


I will, however, be joining the movement physically - there are nationwide protests happening in front of Bank of America, and I'll be joining the one in the Loop later today.  It is no longer the time to sit back and complain about the way things are from the comfort of home; it is time to, collectively, put our money where our mouths are and join in the resistance.  If we are going to criticize the emergent U.S. American oligarchy - the corporate class and their marriage to the bloated political establishment - then we have no choice but to craft an alternative vision by living it out in our homes, in our churches, and on our streets.  Now is the time, now is the moment - "My heart shall sing of the day you bring - let the fires of justice burn!  Wipe away all tears for the dawn draws near, and the world is about to turn!"