The fire that is the peoples' movment known as Occupy Wall Street is now burning and fuel is being added. It's at the point where nothing can stop it. Today a Declaration of the Occupation of New York City was released. Those on the balcony of Harry Cipriani on Wall Street will sip champagne and chuckle just a little less than they did the day prior. Here we go! Let the ride begin.

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October 1, 2011: Police lead protesters on to the Brooklyn Bridge Roadway and arrest them.  Clearly entrapment according to those not arrested who took the walkway of the bridge.

Approximately 50 protesters freed at about 11 PM, the rest remain handcuffed on police paddy-wagon buses for hours.  Police not prepared to process all those arrested, mainly on charges of disorderly conduct.

Link: Sign this petition to Break Up Goldman Sachs and End Financial & Economic Tyranny Now!

September 30, 2011 - Just two weeks ago tomorrow fewer than 3,000 assembled peaceably at Bowling Green in NYC and protested around the Big Brass Bull.  

For a few hours tourists in double-decker sightseeing buses took pictures, the police snickered but were generally indulgent, at worst a little concerned, and after the rally those that remained made their way to Zuccotti Park for more.

That Saturday night a couple hundred made good on a promise and stayed.   For the next few days the NYPD did their best to discourage this behavior, but it didn't work.   And, a couple of hundred turned into hundreds more with thousand participating during the daylight and evening hours.

(Why I love the photo above:  Look closely.  The delicious "I'm better than you" smile on the woman drinking champagne. The subtle paste of worry over the face of the man next to her.  The befuddled stare of the man in argyle shirt.  The black haired woman sharing a secret the rest of us should not hear, in posed back-of-hand style no less, try doing it that way for fun.  The the eyes of the man behind her who still hasn't looked down on the crowd below.  It's our own  Louis XVI moment frozen in time.)

Link: Occupy Wall Street Food Fund Donations HERE

Link: Occupy Wall Street Media Fund Donations HERE

Nonperishable and Money Order Donations: The UPS Store, Occupy Wall Street, 118A Fulton St. #205, New York, NY 10038

Nothing going for them

Those who stayed in what became Liberty Plaza didn't have a clear identity.   They didn't have pithy sound bites.   They didn't have any money.   What they did have was access to the internet.   And what they did manage to say well could be said in two simple chants.

Chant #1: Tell me what democracy looks like. This is what democracy looks like!

And it wasn't pretty but it was, in this land of lost democracy, strangely beautiful.   People in dialogue aided by something called a facilitator making unanimous decisions and charting a course to raise awareness and gain empowerment over a corrupt system on the fly.   A leaderless entity, emerging and growing, working off one simple fact:   the oppression of nearly all Americans had happened slowly but surely and the worst was yet to come.

True democracy would be the answer: the people themselves recognizing and solving their own problems.   To be sure, it would be a long process.   The first decisions were very practical: the survival and growth of the occupation.   After that, a statement of who they were and what they wanted.   And, finally, direct non-violent action to affect change.

Chant #2:   Banks got bailed out!    We got sold out!

From a statement issued by Occupy Wall Street today:   "Over these thirteen days, we have learned that no one supports corporations' disproportionate influence in the political sphere. We have learned that no one is in favor of evicting struggling families to the street while banks continue to profit. No one, that is, except the corporations and banks."

This chant resonates like the Liberty Bell.   You do not have to strike it to hear its tone and message.   People all over the country have answered the call.   The sound of freedom and democracy is getting louder day by day.   More and more Americans who were left behind will soon be awake.

The economic rapture: paradise for 1% and 99% left behind must now be reversed.     

Today:

Radiohead might provide the occupiers music.  

A march to One Police Plaza will make the point that the occupiers support the police but not their brutality.  

Those on the balcony of Harry Cipriani on Wall Street will sip champagne and chuckle just a little less than they did the day prior.

The people of more and more cities will plan and begin new occupations.

More and more unions will join in support; more and more occupiers will picket with unions.

The main stream media will be embarrassed into giving the movement the coverage that an historic moment deserves.   If they do not, word will grow anyway just a bit slower.

And today a Declaration of the Occupation of New York City was released.   It is a new declaration of democracy complete with a list of grievances.    Please read it HERE.

In short, the fire is it and burning and fuel is being added.   It's at the point where nothing can stop it.

But how will this work?   Where is it all going?   That's easy...

Tomorrow the 99% will...

...become more united.

...become less and less afraid.

...support organized labor.

...speak truth to power.

...set realistic achievable goals.

...articulate clear demands

And, finally, the 99% will take practical, creative, non-violent action and achieve real change and be left behind no longer. 

For the meanwhile I will not report on the minutia of Occupy Wall Street on a daily basis.  However, I know I will have much to say as the effort grows and passes milestone after milestone.  

I will be an active participant in Occupy Philadelphia, which held it's first planning meeting last night and assembly of over 400 people!

 Two final words going forward: SHOW UP!

 *People Power Hours PPH explained here on page 3

Authors Bio:
Chaz Valenza is writer and small business owner in New Jersey. He earned his MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business. His current feature film project is "Single Point Failure" an insider's account of how the Reagan Administration caused the greatest tragedy of the space age based on Richard C. Cook's book "Challenger Revealed." He is a former Director of Public Information for Planned Parenthood of NYC. His website is: www.WordsWillNever.com