What's it all about?

There has been a lot of criticism of the Occupy Wall Street movement, much of which centers on the supposed lack of a clear message.  It's not that the message isn't clear, it's that there are is a long list of grievances and unless the sources reporting take the time to hear many of these, they will remain ignorant.  Of course, considering those "reporting" are in America, they're either completely stupid or just plain lying if they say they don't know what this is about.  In fact, I think you'd have to be from another planet to not know what this is about.  I am not a politically or economically-minded person.  The intricacies of this mess are a blur to me but the big picture is that our country has been robbed and the whole world is suffering. 

My personal complaints in relation to the Occupation:

*  Working too many hours for too little compensation.
*  Working full time with no health-care.
*  The fact that higher is out of reach education due to the cost and lack of promise in the job market.

But also:

*  The difference in percentage of income paid as taxes by the ultra-rich over the past 30-50 years.
*  Millions of Americans lost their savings, retirements, homes, and got no compensation.
*  Those who were at fault for the losses got a "bailout", (because they run on our money), but not a cent was returned to the people who actually lost everything.  Not a single person went to jail.
*  Students graduating college can't find jobs in the field they studied for, and if they can they don't pay enough to live, let alone pay back their enormous student loan debt.
*  Millions of Americans have no health insurance.  Of those who do, most have to pay large co-pays and pay for many things that aren't "covered".  Health "care" is an industry, aimed more at "treating" dis-ease than preventing or maintaining health or curing anything.  Big Pharm. is an evil industry.
*  The 1% (top wealthiest) greed has infested everything, causing us to relentlessly pursue our planet's natural  resources and use forms of energy that are ecologically toxic. 
*  We've been brainwashed into consumerism and have lost much arcane knowledge, we need to regain more power over our own well-being.
*  Our food is tainted, the government has allowed the modification not only of prepared packaged food-type products, but also of your basic tomato.  It's getting difficult to get clean seeds.  There are far too many money-makers in our food system, putting pressure on farmers and exponentially over-charging consumers.
*  Our politicians, (and, therefore, our policies), are insistently influenced by large corporations with designs on wringing every cent out of the world while polluting at their leisure. 
*  The "two"-party system isn't working anymore.  The super-rich should be taxed properly and out of that more reasonable tax-pool, each individual who is elected by any party should be given the same (reasonable) amount for campaigning and time in televised debate or, better, just making statements and taking honest questions. 
*  Voting should matter.  There should be no electoral college.  One person, one vote.  Period.
*  And we should be able to vote on EVERYTHING.  We should not be at the mercy of congress sweeping in mid-term and abolishing our new, shiny health-care reform.
*  Every American citizen, (I believe every human being but I have to start where I am), should have health care, a college education, decent primary schooling that is not based on standardized testing, a home that's made of healthy, natural materials and is affordable, work that pays a high enough wage to pay bills and enjoy life, fewer weekly hours worked and more time off, healthy, clean food that isn't "genetically modified" or made of chemicals...
*  We need to be more local.  I'm against sending work over-seas but for a somewhat different reason than some.  I do want things I buy to be made here, as near to me as possible so that the transport of goods does less damage.  I also want these nasty corporations to stop setting up sweat shops in other countries, paying people disgustingly nominal wages to work in brutal conditions so that I can have some cool stuff at the Target dollar-spot.  If we stop all of that, if we bring our work home and take our money back, stop warring all over the place, we could go to these countries and help because our own country would be functional.
*  We don't want to be at war anymore.  Bring our soldiers home.  That's a lot of people who could work at designing and building clean, sustainable power sources.
*  There is a lot of work to be done in this country.  There are a lot of jobs to do.  We just need the money to pay for them.
*  We're not alone.  The reason we've sat in American and watched as Egypt and Libya and Greece and so many other places erupted is that it's been almost-tolerable for so long.  Not only do we have a lot of conveniences here, we've also been taken with the idea that we're somehow in a bubble, that the things the rest of the world has to deal with don't affect us.  "Well, sure glad we don't have any evil dictators here in these great states!"  Unless you really stop and think about it.  Or if they get really greedy and just decide to pull a mighty heist right before everyone's eyes.  Like they did.  It took us three years of stewing over that to get to where we are today.  We're standing up for ourselves, and we're standing up with the rest of the world.  We've finally said, "We're with you!  We're not going to take it anymore, either!  We're with you!".   I'm really glad to be here, watching and cheering and, soon, marching with the whole world.   


 It's about taking it back!