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An Open Letter To Occupy Protesters: How about Good Ethics as Your Theme?

posted Oct 19, 2011 6:21 AM by Jacqueline Lara
 
  One of the knocks against your movement is that you’re unfocused. Many of your complaints are well founded and even the least activist-minded Americans can relate to your cause when you call for the banks to be more honest with lenders, the tax code to be fairer for all and the government to be responsive to its citizens wishes. Who can disagree with fixing the mortgage mess and creating more jobs? Your interest in electing politicians more concerned about the nation instead of themselves resonates with all voters no matter which side of the aisle they call home.
 
 
            
    Unfortunately, your protests are all over the conceptual landscape.
            If the history of protests has taught us anything, it’s that one-message movements do best. Civil rights marches had one theme. So did the anti-war movement. Ditto for the gay pride movement and marches for funding diseases such as breast cancer and AIDS.
            No worries. I’ve got the perfect message for you that encompasses everything for which you stand: Ethical Behavior. It brings everyone in your movement under one tent. 
            Let’s see signs and placard that pronounce the importance of good ethics, both business and political. It’s a message that is easily gasped by TV and web viewers yet can be expounded upon during photo ops and person-in-the-street interviews. (I love the Guy Fawkes masks by the way.)
            Before the weather gets too cold and your marches give way to snow and sleet, let’s see this single overriding idea come forth from your disparate protests. It’s a cover-it-all theme upon which everyone can agree.
Good Ethics.
 
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