What started out as widespread discontent with the government and the economy rapidly evolved into a movement called Occupy Wall Street, which sparked similar national and international movements, including Occupy Boston. Occupy Boston has attracted much attention and encouraged the people of Boston, Massachusetts to get “off of the sidewalks and into the streets.” Occupy Boston has held numerous protests and participated in anti-war marches in coalition with other groups and movements throughout Boston. Dewey Square outside South Station serves as the home of Occupy’s swiftly growing encampment. Created in July, Occupy is highly functional with its own web-site, newspaper, and an on-site library. Renewing hope within the nation for economic improvement and awakening America to the travesty of capitalism, the Occupy Movement is the first step towards the change that must take place within the nation if we wish to preserve any quality of life for our children and for future generations.

The movement against capitalism in the United States has amplified into a huge campaign for economic justice as well as an end to the war. Blazoning signs and slogans such as “Stop ignoring us,” “We are the 99 percent,” and “Don’t piss on us and call it trickle down economics,” the collective disillusionment with the economy, corrupt policies, and capitalism in general is shown with people from all backgrounds joining together to fight this merciless machine. Teachers, students, soldiers, veterans, gay rights activists–middle and lower-class America is fed up with the greed in Washington D.C. and on Wall Street, and with the unjust funding of the war. Capitalism and the greed of Corporate America has created such a demand for revenue that we are, in actuality, funding the enemy our soldiers are dying fighting against every day. Since 2001, out of the hundreds of billions of dollars we have spent on the war, $576.3  billion has been deemed by Pentagon auditors as missing or wasted, and $4.6 billion has been deemed questionable, unsupported, and unreasonable. In other words, there is no telling how much of taxpayers’ money has gone to waste or funded the enemy. It has also greatly demolished the economic stability of the masses, and we are only realizing it now that it has hit us on such a huge scale. This devastation is not only threatening to us, but to future generations as well. It threatens the quality of life for years to come.

Joining this much-needed political movement, the people of Boston have come together to awaken the city to the evils of capitalism and corporate greed, gaining publicity and followers through huge movements all around Boston and helping to coordinate marches and peaceful remonstrations. The reaction to this controversial movement by the Boston Police, as well as politicians, has been cruel and unjust, further proving the need for change. On the morning of October 11, the police proceeded to arrest and detain 141 peaceful protesters, mercilessly assaulting elderly veterans in the movement and holding many protesters in frigid jail cells without sustenance for over 12 hours. Following this terrible violation of the right to free speech and assembly, Mayor Menino tore through the encampment, and damaged a great deal of personal property which had been collected by the movement. The lust for power and wealth, as well as the corrupt policies and a corrupt government fueled by Wall Street has created a demand for change, and this violent, immature, and unjust response only shows the immense threat to our civil rights as citizens of the United States.

It is not just the economy that capitalism and Corporate America is destroying. This corruption and greed fuels both sides of the War in Iraq. Conservatives and war-advocates say that anti-war rallies and movements in this time of war is a “slap in the face” to the soldiers giving their lives for our safety and freedom every day; but isn’t funding the enemy, giving them the ammunition and the ability to keep on killing our men and women, so much worse? Is it not better to bring these soldiers home safe, and stop the death toll from rising, than it is to continue on in this way and lose many more? The people are fed up with this unjust corporate dictatorship, and we must act now and “Be the Catalyst” if we want to keep our civil rights. War is not a “humanitarian effort,” that helps secure the safety of America, it is simply another means for corporate America to become more powerful and to gain more wealth. As John F. Kennedy said, “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”