'We the People' Petitioning and Occupy Wall Street

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions
 
'We the People’ appeared online September 22, 2011. It allows anyone to submit a petition online for any proposal they would like. The petition must privately earn 150 online signatures before it is publicly viewable on the website. When ‘We the People’ debuted, if a petition received 5,000 signatures within 30 days of that petition appearing, the White House said they would publicly respond to that petition. As of October 3, 2011, the White House has increased the petition threshold to 25,000 signatures within 30 days.

I think it's some kind of cosmic serendipity that Occupy Wall Street and We the People happened to spring up within days of each other. I think everyone who aligns themselves with the Occupy Wall Street movement could further the cause by joining We the People and voting for petitions they support, and encourage as many people as possible to participate. Occupy Wall St on Facebook already has about 90,000 members, many of them extremely active users. It should be easy for us to get approval for petitions month after month, forcing the White House to acknowledge our voices each time. Sure, they could dismiss our petitions, but every time petition signers see their proposal ignored, those signers will feel slighted and even more energized to raise awareness to their cause.

I'd like to see OWS members, when interviewed, make mention of the We the People platform. When interviewers challenge us with the, “what does this movement represent?” question, we can still preface our explanation with “well, I can’t speak for everyone involved…” but then go into “but I personally encourage everyone to sign up with We the People at whitehouse.gov/petitions, and to tell the White House directly what proposals they want passed...the petitions I personally support right now include…” This way, everyone who is interviewed can keep true to the integrity of OWS as a decentralized, leaderless movement, while allowing some members to comfortably articulate to interviewers and the rest of the world what specific proposals we as individuals want to see addressed.

I'd like to bury this ‘Occupy Wall Street protesters don't know what they want’ criticism as best we can, and move on to whatever the next challenge will be. I think the We the People platform is a handy resource for applying pressure to the government, while allowing articulated proposals to organically emerge from OWS. It is so easy to use and accessible to anyone with computer access, so I can't think of a good reason not to try to use this to tap on the windows of the White House.

If you like this idea of spreading a 'We the People' meme through Occupy Wall Street, please pass it on!

Peace!