Dear Mr. President ... we are the 99%

While I can't speak for the entire Occupy Movement ..... this is what I see as the movements strengths, and this is why I participate. The letter is addressed to "Mr. President" but only because this is a poem and "Dear broken & ineffective government and corporations that have destroyed our nation" just did not flow the same.



Dear Mr. President,

We are the 99% of America that you have failed.

We are men and women,
Young and old and middle aged.

We are Democrats, Republicans and Independents,
Socialists, Communists. Tea Party members and Anarchists

We are red states and blue states,

Massachusetts to California and every state in between.

We are the upper class, the middle class and the poverty stricken.

Citizens, immigrants and those seeking a home.

We are the 99% Mr. President, do you hear us?

We are Catholics, Protestants, Baptists and Jews,
Muslims and Atheists and Buddhists.

We are straight and gay, lesbian and transgendered,
Soccer moms and stay at home dads.
We live on $7.25 an hour, and 401Ks and spare change and fixed incomes,
Balance our budgets, live week-to-week and drown in debt.

We are carnivores, omnivores, herbivores and vegans,

The well fed and the starving and the farmers.

We are the 99% Mr. President and we have found our voice.

We are the healthy and sick and uninsured,
The mentally ill and differently abled.

We are the strong, and the weak and the bullied,
The outspoken and the ignored.

We are Black, Hispanic, Native, Arab and Asian,
Legal and illegal and white.

We are optimists, pessimists, and disenfranchised,
College educated, undereducated, college drop outs and illiterate.

We are the 99% Mr. President, we love our country and we want it back.

We are veterans and teachers and doctors and lawyers.

The employed, the unemployed, the underemployed,and the self-employed.

We are on social security, medicaid, welfare and unemployment,
Entrepreneurs, small business owners and volunteers in our communities.
We are homeowners and the foreclosed upon

Families living in suburbia and on the streets.

We are creative and artistic, crunch numbers and cure disease,
We are the people.

We are the 99% Mr. President and we are waiting for you.

To acknowledge our voice and send us the support,

You sent Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

To let the Supreme Court know,

Corporations are not people.

To tell the banks that are too big to fail,

That they are on their own.

To let the Congress know their responsibility is their constituents,

Not getting funding for the next election.

To tell the lobbyists they can no longer purchase our government,

Because it is not for sale.

We are the 99% Mr. President and you have failed us.

We love our country and we want it back.

We want a future of hope for our children.

We want the change you promised us.

We want equity and justice.

We want transparency and accountability.

These are not demands,

They are our Constitutional rights,

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness!

We are the 99% Mr. President,

And if you can't hear us,

We can turn it up!