There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all! -- Mario Savio, FSM
Though the time that these immortal words were spoken, Mario Savio was speaking about the Free Speech Movement. But when I read these words, when I hear these words, whether I'm listening to Linkin Park's song Wretches and Kings, or I'm watching the live video of Mario Savio or I'm actually reading the words on my computer, I realize that it has many more applications in our world and our time.
For those who are occupying Wall Street, I salute you. Those in the Tea Party, I salute you. Those musicians and writers who are writing America's desperation and indignation and speaking them and singing them, I salute you. Because you are the ones who are making change in America, not Obama, not Republicans or Democrats, Americans! It starts with us and hopefully ends with equality and liberty.
The "machine" that Savio is talking about, when he makes his speech, is "business as usual." We see it everywhere. Those of us in the real middle class don't see prosperity like those above us. We receive raises that only cover inflation, if we see them at all. Some of us, for our hard work, see pay cuts while those above us get bonuses. Some of us lose our jobs and have to live off the government, not because we want to, but because the jobs that used to be here in America are now over in India and China.
Before I continue I want to be perfectly clear: there are individuals living off the government who have no desire to work and also there are rich men out there that do deserve the wealth they have acquired, but there are plenty of us who are hard-working, who do the jobs that others don't want, who listen to customers bitch and moan, there are many of us and many of us have to make hard decisions everyday: do I feed my family or do I pay the mortgage?
It is time for all of us, as one, to stand up! Americans from sea to shining sea rise up and fight the power that is pushing you from living the American dream that our nation is so God-Damn proud of!
Because the time is now! Change is Now! Those who are overpaid, should take the pay cut, not the working individual who makes sure that overpaid slob gets a paycheck!
For now the machine has become so odious, has made us all sick at heart and we can't even begin to imagine how we have taken part for so long without saying anything to the contrary! We want change? We need to put our bodies upon the gears, upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon the entire apparatus and make it stop! And we'll march to the people run this machine, the owners, the law makers, the selfish and those who have simply lost their way and shout at them that until we're free, their machine will be prevented from working at all!
We are bigger! We are stronger! Rise for equality! Rise for an America for the people, by the people!
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