An open letter to the Occupy Movements of the Pacific Northwest

With the arrests made across the country, and specifically here in Seattle, the Occupy Movement is starting to get the media attention it deserves, however it is still plagued by a lack of direct vision. There is now a proposed list of demands on the Occupy Wall Street website. I like that they're trying to get a cohesive message out, but unfortunately this fails miserably at best.

After reading through the list, which at times is blatantly contradictory, I realized that all of these demands are unattainable within our current system of government. Given the political divisions that exists and the external money influencing the process it is impossible to move forward with even the most basic of these demands. Demand #2 is a perfect example of that, we all remember how the healthcare debate played out in Washington DC.

Now those of you in the Seattle movement are beginning to work on your own set of demands, which I fully support. The demands of the people in the Northwest are sure to be different than those on the east coast or elsewhere in the country. Of all the ideas you are discussing there is one strangely absent that could essentially solve all of them with one single blow, succession.

All of my long time followers of this blog know that I am a strong advocate for an independent Cascadian state and I believe now is the perfect time to ask "Why not?" The unrest at the heart of the current protests is very real, yet our government still does nothing. How long are we going to tolerate it?

This is the perfect opportunity to take this movement and give it a clear and solid direction that has the power to make life better for all of us. Now I understand that this idea seems crazy and even downright frightening. How could we possibly transition ourselves out of the union and create our own system of governance being that we’ve become so entrenched in our current place? I’m not saying that it something that would be easy, however the benefits far outweigh the risks.

So instead of occupying our cities, let's liberate them. We seem to have forgotten that our cities are already occupied, and that's the problem.


- "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." Albert Camus