The 99%

I'll start off by saying, I had a hard time finding one picture to read into. I wanted to go with a theme, and that theme was the Occupy Wall Street Movement. So like every other person who needs answers, I googled it.

Under the google, "We are the 99%" I found a website Tublr posted with series of pictures of people, holding a piece of paper. Each paper is different, representing that person's story. I read though some different pictures. You can see the pain in people's eyes. I noticed that no one is smiling. Many of the pictures have darker backgrounds which could maybe represent how their life is in the dark as being the 99% who are working for everything while the people in the light are the 1% who get everything they want without second guessing. The picture made me think of my friends who are anxious about school and jobs like everyone else but, being the 1% they are unaware the power and privilege they have. Although they can spend $200 on back to school clothes, the other 99% can hardly pay for family dinner.

I am grateful that I have the friends that I do from the 1 percentile but I am also thankful for being raised in an environment where most of the people around me are the 99%. Each side has a lot to share and have different views on how they see the world. Yet, I do not think that my friends from the 1% would read the body of the Wall Street Movements with the same enthusiasm and amount of intrest as I do.

Hmmm...interesting. I kept googling, now looking under Occupy Wall Street and photos. Pictures of people flash across my eyes. A body with a sign, bodies holding hands, and holding determination in their hearts. There are wide variety of ages, races, people, and genders showing that the economic impact is affectant to not just to minorities or women but to whites and men as well. In the picture below people are linked together showing that they are united under this problem. People hold signs and their mouths are open letting them express who they are and what they want.

The number of people are growing and the 99% are speaking up. Going back to the google page under "Occupy Wall Street" I find a sweatshirt I could buy for only $37.40. Huh? This is why I couldn't just read one picture. I spent about 20 minutes reading articles, seeing pictures, faces, reading the stories of peoples lives and conditions and why they are the 99%. It is a real problem that need to be address but then you look to the right side of the screen and see that you can buy an article of clothing to promote the event for the cost of what it is to take a small family out to dinner, it made it a joke. Some ironic joke.

A person has made this movement into their own advertising production of products. Sick. People are probably actually buying these sweatshirts to benefit someone else to rise above and make money, (whether they are the 99% or the 1%). The sale is representing a movement which promotes equality for everyone and the sweatshirt says "hey represent the movement and give me some money".

A young white person, a crowed with linked arms, a shirt for $37.40: an awareness of The Occupy Wall Street Movement. Families, single parents, students, and workers are all being effected and are coming together to join their voices in a movement. Yet in any movement there is opposition, and there is always an argument. In this case there is also the argument of the 1% or of the cops. However, my argument is to highlight the irony of some individual's choice to make a movement of opposition to greed into a business opportunity.