Person of the Year is The Freedom Fighter NOT the “noisemaker;” a.k.a The Protestor

Freedom Fighter or  just a Protester  ( Time)

When everyday American citizens in New Orleans strove desperately to survive after Hurricane Katrina in 2005,, they were labeled refugees and looters by the media; their own government law enforcers did not hesitate to shoot to kill them. 

Ok, that example was extreme and apologies to President George Bush 43 for citing the main issue related to what he called the “lowest point of my presidency.” But that kind of labeling is why there is little surprise when the most recognized news magazine in the world, Time Magazine superficially named the “Noisemaker” as its Time Person of the Year 2011.

 

Yet check out TPOTY 1993, “The Peace Makers,” represented by former South African leaders Nelson Mandela and FW DE Klerk, and the former Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat – 1993. Time Magazine could easily have branded them the “Negotiators,” or “Handshakers” but the Magazine took the high road and named them, “Peacemakers.” 

In the world of Time Magazine, if I entrusted an entity with my wealth to keep and add value to it but the entity betrayed me, by using my wealth to boost his self aggrandizement and power, then used that power to exploit me, and I rose up against him, I am just a “noisemaker”(protester).

The main reasons and people behind these noises worldwide is about entities that used power entrusted them to betray and manipulate the very people who gave them that power. The major differences between these corrupt power mongers are geography and personalities involved.  Not so much unlike that which occurred on a farm introduced to us by George Orwell.

The whole idea of Wall Street, banking and finance; was and is still a noble one. You are an, inventor, a manufacturer, draughtsman, maybe an opera singer, a teacher or health worker. Whatever you were, it was inconvenient trying to handle all the money. Keep it safe with a financial institution and access it when you want to.  You want to expand, start or buy a business, worry not; the collective monies held in trust from other people including you was available to you on loan for a small fee instead of spending time begging relatives and friends to raise money so you could concentrate on your invention, business, work etc. 

Occupier with telling sign (Wikipedia)

Realizing the power they had over the collective, they who invented and produced nothing suddenly became inventors of some things that were basically, nothing. They packaged promises, future yields, values and profits of your collective hard work, presented them as products and took your money for it. Others also controlling the collective power of monies they hold on behalf of the people exploited that power in dealing with individuals by dictating to them – bank fees, closing fees, debit card fees, minimum balance, interest rates, credit scores.

Still, Time Magazine thought Molly Katchpole who helped abolish Bank of America’s last debit card enslaving move is just a noise maker. She is a FREEDOM FIGHTER. 

The financial institutions deemed themselves to be hardworking and plundered and enriched themselves and when all their greed and lies were exposed causing this massive hemorrhage of the economy, they still had the audacity to draw fat checks and bonuses to pay themselves while the people saw their wealth vanish. But according to President Obama, it was all legal. Off course remember they had your collective power (money) and used it to lobby and sponsor campaigns to help legislate or unlegislate laws in their favor. 

 

They were and still are that powerful even in an administration that sought to be progressive that, President Obama could not even appoint Massachusetts senate Candidate, Elisabeth Warren to head the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) after she worked hard as the president’s Assistant to help establish it.

Here is an Elisabeth Warren quote - “To restore some basic sanity to the financial system, we need two central changes: fix broken consumer-credit markets and end guarantees for the big players that threaten our entire economic system”. The power of Wall Street and the banks through their allies in Congress cost the ordinary citizen a powerful ally; but hang on till the next general elections. 

Meanwhile a spontaneous force of people rising up against these enslavers not sponsored by millionaires or boosted by massive coverage; individuals sounding online and writing letters, rising up against the greed of Wall Street and calling for accountability even if they call themselves 99 Percent, Occupiers, Anonymous, are FREEDOM FIGHTERS yes?.