{"id":1398,"date":"2011-10-13T15:16:24","date_gmt":"2011-10-13T19:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/to-the-people-of-valdosta-and-south-georgia-occupy-valdosta.html"},"modified":"2011-10-13T15:16:24","modified_gmt":"2011-10-13T19:16:24","slug":"to-the-people-of-valdosta-and-south-georgia-occupy-valdosta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/to-the-people-of-valdosta-and-south-georgia-occupy-valdosta.html","title":{"rendered":"To the people of Valdosta and South Georgia —Occupy Valdosta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted today in
\n
\nOccupy Valdosta’s<\/a> facebook page:<\/p>\n

\nTo the people of Valdosta and South Georgia<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nWe, the local citizens occupying Valdosta, urge you to assert your power.<\/p>\n

\n
\nExercise your right to peaceably assemble;<\/a> to nonviolently occupy
\npublic space;
\nto create an open process to address the problems we face, and to generate
\nsolutions accessible to everyone.<\/p>\n

\nOur issues are varied, yet related.<\/p>\n

\nWe seek\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

\nopen discussions on important issues which have been ignored. We
\nseek to unite a long overdue people’s movement, bringing together people
\nfrom all walks of life, to improve the<\/p>\n

\nquality of life for everyone, not just for a few.<\/p>\n

\nWe need a local free press, including print, radio, TV, and online text,
\npictures, and video, that covers events and issues of local importance
\nto the local community, not just of importance to selected parts of the
\nbusiness community.<\/p>\n

\nWe need a level playing field, where everyone has the chance to attain
\nthe American Dream, with equal rights and justice for all, regardless
\nof age, the color of ones skin, gender identity, or sexual orientation.<\/p>\n

\nWe need a workable solution to the problem of poverty so that people have
\nsecurity of basic food and shelter, so that parents can pay attention
\nto their children, and so that children can learn.<\/p>\n

\nWe need a quality, affordable, public education system, at both the
\ncollege and the K-12 levels, designed and operated by educators for
\neducation, not by business for profit. Our community needs business to
\nfocus on business and so educators can focus on educating our children.<\/p>\n

\nWe need to end the school to prison pipeline and to reduce the shamefully
\nhigh incarceration rate that Georgia leads in the nation and the nation
\nleads in the world, most immediately by refusing to accept a private
\nprison.<\/p>\n

\nWe need transparent government which is of, by and for the people and not
\nof, by and for corporations. Decisions by elected and appointed public
\nofficials should be made in open meetings, with open records available
\nto all.<\/p>\n

\nAll local governments need to recognize that builders and developers
\nare not a privileged class, and their desire to make a profit is not
\nmore important than a clean environment nor the rights of neighbors,
\nagriculture, forests, or taxpayers. Sprawl is a sure path to fiscal
\ndisaster, and new housing should be encouraged to locate near existing
\nservices.<\/p>\n

\nWe need separation of corporation and state, including fundamental
\ncampaign finance reform which ends unlimited corporate donations to
\ncandidates and elected officials. Local referendum campaign contributions
\nshould be made public.<\/p>\n

\nAutomobiles are not a privileged class. Our community needs public
\ntransportation, and it needs to be more bicycle friendly and pedestrian
\nfriendly.<\/p>\n

\nOur community needs to move ahead with renewable and sustainable energy
\nsuch as solar, wind, efficiency, and conservation, for jobs, health,
\nand a clean environment, and to enhance national security by reducing
\ndependence on foreign oil and other remote fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

\nOur community needs a banking system that provides needed services such
\nas financing renewable and sustainable energy and charges reasonable fees.<\/p>\n

\nWe need to end corporate greed and have corporations pay their fair
\nshare of taxes.<\/p>\n

\nThe Federal Reserve should be audited by a citizen watch group, and
\nreformed or abolished.<\/p>\n

\nWe need real immigration reform that provides for humane treatment of
\nimmigrants, a clear path to citizenship, a work force for farmers and
\nother employers, and minimal competition with domestic labor.<\/p>\n

\nOur community needs to support local agriculture with minimal pesticides
\nand local farmers markets and stores, for jobs, health, and community.<\/p>\n

\nOur community needs to be good stewards of all our resources. We do
\nnot need to be Tallahassee or Jacksonville or Atlanta to be a vibrant,
\neducated, employed, and cooperating community.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted today in Occupy Valdosta’s facebook page: To the people of Valdosta and South Georgia We, the local citizens occupying Valdosta, urge you to assert your power. Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; to nonviolently occupy public space; to create an open process to address the problems we face, and to generate solutions accessible to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,120,47,216,48,40,14,15,49,264,265,16,70,266,2,41,19,1381,72,733,3400,21,22,32,23,3],"tags":[3637,8738,424,512,1872,8753,931,8704,8705,1031,8706,1164,2160,8701,8699,8718,8830,8730,847,2695,7,8799,8737,8871,8715,8713,3636,215,6],"class_list":["post-1398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-biomass","category-climate-change","category-coal","category-code-enforcement","category-community","category-economy","category-education","category-elections","category-energy-conservation","category-energy-efficiency","category-environment","category-ethics","category-festivals","category-government","category-health-care","category-history","category-immigration","category-incarceration","category-media","category-occupy-valdosta","category-planning","category-politics","category-pollution","category-renewable-energy","category-transparency","tag-banking","tag-biomass","tag-business","tag-chamber-of-commerce","tag-civil-rights","tag-coal","tag-conservation","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-efficiency","tag-environment","tag-finance","tag-free-press","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-health-care","tag-immigration","tag-incarceration","tag-jobs","tag-justice","tag-lowndes-county","tag-media","tag-nuclear","tag-occupy-valdosta","tag-pollution","tag-renewable-energy","tag-solar-energy","tag-south-georgia","tag-valdosta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}