First things first, the Avaaz petition broke 500,000 signatures yesterday! They’ve upped it to a million, so feel free to go and sign it if you haven’t yet:

The World vs Wall Street
http://www.avaaz.org/en/the_world_vs_wall_st/?fjfRgcb&pv=27

And of course, a few select pieces from friends that I’ve seen since I last posted:

Panic of the Plutocrats
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/opinion/panic-of-the-plutocrats.html?_r=1

It makes a very clear and very valid point when it comes to America and Americans – there is a certain section of society that believes that anything calling it into account should be demonized and torn to bits because it dares to question. To a degree, it is incredibly endemic in American society in general; I had a family member tell me to my face that if I talked as badly about America as they felt I talk about the UK that they would be the ever-living crap out of me and throw me bodily into the street. All I did was make simple statements about how society is borked and how it could be addressed; I’m constantly amazed that this somehow makes you a ‘bad’ person. But there you go – dialog is something that desperately needs to be restored, and especially dialog not controlled and led by the wealthy leading the media leading the blind, deaf, and dumb.

Ben & Jerry’s Mooved by Occupy Wall Street Protests
http://www.brandchannel.com/…/Ben-Jerrys-Occupy-Wall-Street-101011.aspx

I’m not really sure how I feel about this, but I am charmed in general. It’s hard not to be with Ben & Jerry’s; they’re just that little bit of goofy and sincere… say the girl who can’t remember ever having a single bite of their ice cream. If I did/had, perhaps I would know the veracity of their claimed people-friendly credits. I’m not about to start eating it now specifically, but I guess it’s nice to see more support for the average joe.

In more exciting-to-me news:

OccupyDallas public letter to city officials
http://occupydallas.org/occupydallas-public-letter-city-officials

From everything I’ve heard, the Dallas protest is attempting to do everything as right as possible. That isn’t to say that others aren’t, but I have mainly been happy to follow along an see what’s being said and done. There seems to be some knee-jerk confusion about insurance in the wake of applying for a proper permit, but I hope it clears up and that the occupation can continue peacefully. And that calmer heads can keep things going smoothly; I do worry about hot-heads hijacking things. As one person said on the Occupy Dallas Facebook group:

‘The whole point of the Occupy movement is to seek the liberation of our government from corporate influence. Not anarchy, no overthrow, no violence. I lived through the 60’s and the public image of the riots is one thing that has swung public support so far to the right. Don’t take their bait, be cool, be calm, be informed, be single minded in mission. Each of us is an official representative, look and act like it.’

Nicely said ma’am, nicely said.