Simple Q:

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

http://labornotes.org/2012/02/chicago-occupation-challenges-corporate-school-agenda

This isn't terribly big news. But it does show that an occupation of space can lead to a positive result.

To be fair, I felt occupation was a silly tactic back in early September 2011. I've come around sense then.

Have you? Does this article mean anything to you? Does it make you think that maybe occupying spaces is a tactic that gets results?

Comments

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

Does it make you think that maybe occupying spaces is a tactic that gets results?

"Occupy" is just a spin on "sit-in" designed (originally, anyway) to satirize our use of military occupations to solve other countries' problems. Or that's how I read it, anyway. It's not like this is a novel or unproven tactic. The use of masses of individuals to continually disrupt the normal business of a protested organization is pretty old (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sit-in).

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

During the Iran-Contra hearings, I was involved in a congressional office occupation. We did not get everything we hoped, but we got more than we feared. As with the case outlined in this article, we got the attention of people in charge.

[muscadinegirl.livejournal.com]

Any group of citizens working together towards a goal is usually a good thing in a democracy (depending on the goal). It's even been known to work under other types of government.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

This isn't terribly big news. But it does show that an occupation of space can lead to a positive result.

What's the positive result here? That they got access that they could have gotten by acting like adults instead of children?

If anything, the occupiers should be supporting such charter schools and school choice, since that's going to do more than the status quo that's failing our kids.

What defines a "positive result" here?

Have you? Does this article mean anything to you? Does it make you think that maybe occupying spaces is a tactic that gets results?

I've held that it's childish and juvenile, and that it doesn't really accomplish much. Nothing, to this point, has been shown to me to suggest otherwise, and the continued behavior of the occupy supporters and sympathizers isn't helping matters.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

If you don't know what "positive result" means, I cannot imagine you are arguing in good faith, and as such, you are not worth any time.

Good day.

[meowchica.livejournal.com]

http://occupyourhomes.org

is this not positive?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

If you can't even define the terms to discuss them, what's the point of your post?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

This is actually very negative, and rewards defaulting on contracts as opposed to rightful ownership.

If I don't pay my mortgage, what right do I have to the home I'm not paying for?

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Anybody with half a brain knows that the definition game can go on indefinitely. If you cannot understand what is meant by an insanely common sense phrase then there is no point talking to you.

You are being deliberately obtuse.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I know what I think a "positive result" would be, and I'm not seeing it here. You never explain what the "positive result" is here, so I'm asking you to expand on it. Can you do that?

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

What gives someone the right to own land?

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

the occupiers did force all seven school board members to each engage a team of parents and community members in intensive discussions on the future of the school, cracking a wall of silence from city leaders

[meowchica.livejournal.com]

You're simplifying the issue to just a bunch of people who didn't follow through with paying instead of including the factors that led to the foreclosures.

A lot of it wasn't their fault, and a lot of it wasn't legal.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

THE 10th AMMENDMENT, BUSTER!!!11

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

lol

[major-dallas.livejournal.com]

so no reversal, just a meeting. Well that is more than nothing...

[dwer.livejournal.com]

it's a lot, actually. The Chicago government, particularly when it comes to schools, has been very dismissive of parents and communities when it comes to this sort of thing.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

what it got was very positive -- proof that the city government was listening to them.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

I wonder if your mayor or my mayor has the bigger egos :P

Cuz Mayor Bloomberg has a really nasty temper.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

They probably already were. There's nothing to suggest they weren't, after all - one can hear what plenty of people have to say and dismiss it without comment.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

A lot of it wasn't their fault, and a lot of it wasn't legal.

I have my doubts. I'm certainly not taking their word for it, and the Occupy Homes lunatics have not really differentiated between legal and what they deem as illegal foreclosures.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

How did the occupiers force it? Are you seriously claiming that they would not have gotten the same result being adults about it?

Furthermore, if "engagement" means "opposition to a good charter school," is that a "positive result?" If so, how is the status quo on schooling better than the alternative being floated?

[meowchica.livejournal.com]

lunatics is a strong word for people who are spending all of their time trying to help others - whether they're succeeding or not.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

No, Jeff. They weren't.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

Oh, mine has the bigger ego, but yours has more money.