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The reason I know the Occupy Wall Street movement is what we have been waiting for is because I know two things: that all beings seek peace and prosperity, and that the Occupy Wall Street movement seeks that for all people.

For decades inequality has been more and more pronounced. Those at the top have continued to thrive and expand their wealth while the rest of us, the middle and lower classes, have seen our real wealth decline. What we are earning at our jobs is getting us less real buying power. Things are more and more expensive and therefore poverty and all of its associated problems have greatly increased. See:

http://www.alternet.org/economy/152601/5_facts_you_should_know_about_the_wealthiest_one_percent_of_americans

Occupy Wall Street is a powerful movement of people who are tired of the same old story. We have been promised that if we work hard enough we can be rich too, but by now we can see that is an empty promise unable to be achieved due to a lack of jobs and limited opportunity. We can no longer blame each other for being “lazy,” I think people clearly see that the game is rigged and the future vision for so many is painted with debt, struggle, limited opportunity and difficulty. No longer are people willing to be walked on, people are finally standing up and saying, “This isn’t working in my best interests!”

I have been to Occupy Los Angeles and I have seen that the principles the movement stands for are peace, compassion, justice and equality. Signs all around point out issues like healthcare for all, caring for our environment, compassion for animals, legalization of hemp, fair taxation and world peace. Those issues are based on universal values that bring benefit to everybody compared to, say, greed which benefits only a few.

The truth is that humanity has been operating within a paradigm that says the best way to organize our society is around capitalist principles of getting more, buying things, and competing with each other for resources. Those values have led us to the present day and now the tipping point is here. All human beings deserve to be recognized for their uniqueness and supported in their desire to live their greatest dreams. The current system is not supporting us in our desires to know our own greatness and live a deep and permanent happiness.

Occupy Wall Street is changing the debate in America, and the world, and showing that people are not happy anymore to just accept the status quo. Whether you realize it or not, this movement is just what we have been waiting for. The masses are awakening to a higher vision that does not limit prosperity to just a few but that includes all human beings in a higher vision.

Join them! Occupy movements are spreading across the country. http://www.occupytogether.org/

To support the movement if you are not the get-out-in-the-streets type, you can write or call your senators and congressional representatives. You can also call president Obama at 1-202-456-1111. Tell our leaders that you support the movement and ask them to show their support publicly.

Human beings are lights of consciousness that are capable of creating a joyful and fulfilling life. Considering this, and when you take a look at the world we live in, you would think we would choose to do some different things. Things that made us happier. Why don’t we?

One reason is because the minds of humans are conditioned from childhood with events, images and people demonstrating a way of life common to members of our tribe. We learn how to behave, what is expected of us and what a ‘normal’ life is. Many of our ideas about life are based on what other people tell us. We seldom ask the big questions and hardly ever consider another way to be possible. We live within a self-imposed box, confining our unlimited spirits to mundane routine and competition.

But if we are fortunate we will listen to our feelings that are telling us that life is more than living in a box. If we pay attention to those feelings more, and let them grow, they will help us recreate our life based on our deepest desires rather than on what society expects from us. It’s true that we are conditioned by a social system and this makes it very hard to recognize that life could be more, but it is also true that we are responsible for our own happiness. To be joyful is a choice, therefore we should choose to do things that make us happy. As simple as that is it is the truth, there is a better way.

I’ve had tunnel vision lately, and at the end of the tunnel is a new song I am writing about homelessness called, “People on the Streets.” It’s inspired by my work with The Giving Spirit, an L.A. based non-profit that distributes survival kits to the homeless in Los Angeles. There is another event coming real soon on June 11-12, 2011, so I guess it is appropriate that I am inspired to work on this now.

There're people living on the streets

Since last weekend I have been recording guitars and the various other layers in Pro Tools. I’m finally at the point where I can use Pro Tools to capture most of the ideas I have, it’s a great program with a steep learning curve, in my opinion, but now that I’ve got the basics of recording and mixing down it’s all downhill from here. Now it’s just a matter of making the music. Nice.

Here are the lyrics for People on the Streets:

I had a little conversation

Thought about my situation

And the people living on the streets

Outcast and forgotten

Extreme reality

It’s not a movie, and it’s not TV

Put your fears aside

Put your judgment aside

They’re just trying to stay alive

They’re just trying to survive

Food is a basic human right

Put a shelter over everyone in sight

Put your fears aside

Put your judgment aside

They’re just trying to stay alive

They’re just trying to survive

Food is a basic human right

Put a shelter over everyone in sight

Hopefully soon I can share my song. I tried to give it a walking-down-the-street vibe with a nice rhythm section. I still have to work on the arrangement a little and I’m still trying to get a vocal take that I like so wish me luck on that, and hopefully the end result will be a nice song that honors the homeless and makes us think about the issue a little.