Community Corner
Local Group will Show its Support for Occupy Wall Street Movement Saturday
Montclair chapter of MoveOn to hold rally at Wayne Veterans Memorial.
The 99 percent are coming to Wayne.
The Montclair Chapter of MoveOn, a group of organizations that works to increase residents’ voices within politics, will meet at the Veterans Memorial at the from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19. The group will declare its support for the Occupy Wall Street Movement and the Contract for the American Dream.
Dianne Douthat is helping to organize the event. Douthat is the Wayne liaison to the Montclair chapter of MoveOn. The group held a similar, peaceful gathering in Little Falls earlier this year.
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The group wants to open a dialogue with local government officials and work their way up the legislative ladder.
“We want to raise awareness of what’s going in politically that affects our lives,” Douthat said. “Right now, the voices of the lobbyists and the top 1 percent are so powerful, the other 99 percent of us have trouble being heard. We want to have a voice in how things are done.”
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An area of local concern for the group is to have local politicians secure funding for a permanent solution to area flooding.
Years ago workers had unions to represent their interests, young men and women graduated college with little or no debt, and families were able to live with only one parent working full time. All of that has changed, Douthat said.
“We have a country that is supposed to be by the people and for the people, not by the rich and for the rich,” Douthat said.
The group wants high education to become more affordable so young adults can start their lives debt-free.
“There’s a lot less funding going into higher education. States don’t have as much money to put into higher education as they once did,” Douthat said. “The very low-cost student loans that used to be available are no longer available.”
The decline in the amount of goods manufactured in also part of the problem.
“When you have a company like Maytag who is shipping out all of their jobs to Asia and South America, shouldn’t there be some kind of penalty for that,” Douthat said. “There used to be so many goods that were made in this country and that made our country great,” Douthat said.
Fostering an increased sense of social conscious is another of the group’s goals.
“We’re severely lacking as a country when we can walk past misery and poverty and do nothing about it,” Douthat said. “I want to live in a country that will have justice for all, not just the people who can afford it.”
Keeping the Dream Alive
The Contract for the American Dream is a document created by MoveOn and Rebuild the Dream, an organization that works to restore the hope of home ownership and creating stable jobs for middle class families. The Contract consists of 10 steps that need to be taken to get the economy “back on track.” Among them are investing in infrastructure projects and public education, and a return to “fairer tax rates.”
“We just want fairness for regular people and our veterans,” said Arnold Korotkin, a Little Falls resident. “Veterans are coming back home and are having such a tough time finding jobs. We can’t allow that to continue.”
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