Rangel Speaks Out Supporting Wall Street Protesters
Another voice form Congress is breaking the silence on the remarkable occupation movement that is sweeping across the USA in protest against Wall Street and corporate greed. This time, it’s Charles Rangel, a U.S. Representative from New York itself.
Rangel stood on the floor and shamed those who would laugh at the Occupy Wall Street protesters rather than listen to them. Congressman Rangel said,
“When a great country like the United States, a beacon for people to come to from all over the world in order to be successful, finds itself with so much of our national wealth being concentrated in the hands of so few people, never before has this happened in history, where we find more and more children and adults going into poverty in historic numbers.
We find the shrinking of our middle class, where all of our dreams and aspirations are planned, born, and conceived in the United States of America; where we have so many brave American men and women fighting causes in foreign countries that their parents don’t understand and they come home with emotional and physical disabilities; that we can never thank them for their courage; and when we see young people on Wall Street and the Wall Streets around this country protesting, and they’re being ridiculed because they have no leaders, they have no single cause, they never knew each other, they’re not organized. But neither is America’s pain and concern organized.
People are mad as hell. They really think that they’ve been let down. They worked so hard to achieve what they had achieved in this great country; and the greatest thing about America is not what you’ve achieved, in my opinion, it is having the hope that you can make it in America.”
In Washington D.C. itself, there is now an occupation protest within earshot of the White House, and within easy walking distance of Congress. Last night, the Freedom Plaza occupation began.
It is understandable. America is really angry at the way the federal government is being bought by big money companies. Even Obama’s team is filled with them.