Occupy Wall Street Already Having Political Effects on New York State

Occupy Wall Street is already having political effects on New York State. First, Cuomo slightly raised taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers. This was anathema just one year ago, before Occupy existed. Now, Sheldon Silver has a bill to finally raise New York State's minimum wage above the federal minimum. This should have been done awhile ago, as a big part of New York State's population lives in the high costs areas of metropolitan New York.

Occupy Towns Square Supports Occupy Oakland

Originally, Occupy Towns Square in Washington Square Park in New York City was meant to broad the locations that Occupy Wall Street operates in, and make occupy wall street more visible to the public. But as news came in on how many people were arrested this weekend on Occupy Oakland's direct action, OWS decided to hold a march after Occupy Towns Square in solidarity with occupiers in oakland.

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Park Service Tells Occupy DC To Stop Camping Overnight by Monday

The National Park Service has told Occupy DC that they will enforce the ban on camping overnight in federal park land. This means the occupiers must stop camping overnight in McPherson Square by Monday. This comes on the tail end of major direction actions that Occupy DC has taken. Occupy DC has taken direction actions near the capitol, near the Supreme Court, and near the White House. As elections are later on this year, Occupy DC is perhaps in the best position to have influence on politicians. If no one sees your protests, then you don't have any effect on them.

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The Pussification of the Left

No offense to anyone feminine, but unfortunately leftist movements tend to get pussified. They get so caught up in getting inclusive, they end up included people who are violent and abusive towards others. And because they can't use standards (since standards remind them of their mean parental figures) the unsavory elements are allowed to expand in many leftist movements, until the movements are destroyed from within. This has traditionally been an issue in leftist movements.

For the record, I'm for the rights of all people. I want to live in a society where its recognized we all have the same basic rights. I believe the best social services program is a good job, and that the best societies respect the rights of workers. What I do not do is bend out of the way to support or indulge nutcases.

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Thor: All Mother of Asgard

Thor: All Mother of Asgard

For eons, Asgard has been ruled by the All Father Odin. This was temporarily broken by Odin's death and Thor assuming leadership. For an even briefer period of time, Thor's brother Balder was King. But the All Father Odin returned. Odin's brother Cul, the god of fear, returned and slaughtered Odin's sons (Thor died defeating Cul, Balder and Tyr were killed). All Father Odin then abdicated his throne, and decided to keep watch over Cul for all time, to prevent his possible resurrection.

Odin left the care of Asgard, and the other 8 worlds (including Midgard) in the hands of the only one capable of taking care of it. The All Mother had the wisdom and power rivaling the All Father. The All Mother is the triple goddess. Gaea, the Mother (also the biological mother of Thor), Freyja, the Queen, and Idunn the Maiden. Gaea is an elder god and the goddess of the earth. Freyja is the Queen of the Vanir. Idunn is the goddess of youth. As Thor attempts to return from the beyond, when he returns he won't be burdened by having to rule Asgard, as his mother is now ruler. Its interesting for Marvel to give considerable coverage to the All Mother, as for years we typically saw a lot more of the male gods (Thor, Hercules, Odin, Zeus, Shango) and not so much of the female gods, unless they were villains. But lately, we've seen more strong characterization of female deities, such as the All Mother and in Hercules's book, Athena and Sersi. Back to the All Mother, its interesting to see the female side of Thor's family portrayed in prominent roles. In a recent Thor series, all father Odin has to go to Gaea for her advice on a matter she had greater understanding of than him.

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X-Men Versus Avengers

The X-Men and Avengers have been both friends and and enemies over the years. The latest conflicts around them have surrounded the fate of mutantkind. There was a recent dispute between the two teams when the Scarlet Witch, the woman who had depowered most mutants with her spell had returned. Now there's a upcoming battle between both sides over Hope Summers, the mutant messiah responsible for new mutant manifestations. Hope is apparently a fragment or projection of Jean Grey/Phoenix. Apparently the depowering of mutants will be undone soon.

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Occupy Wall Street Continues to Clean House/Remove Negative Influences

On Wednesday, January 25^th, 2012, the Spokes Council voted to ban three individuals deemed disruptive from housing at Park Slope. These individuals had been linked to verbal and physical violence.  The Spokes Council also voted to end General Assembly funds going to support housing at said churches. Moving forward under a new proposal passed out Jan. 26, 2012, it will be possible for working groups to sponsor individuals who are known to be serious, well behaved activists to remain housed in churches or to find alternate housing for them. Those who aren't active with Occupy Wall Street will be out of the churches altogether.

Mother of Witches

A Riot Breaks Out in Occupy Wall Street General Assembly

On Tuesday, January 24, 2012, a riot broke out in the general assembly. Nan Terrie, who has been trying to dissolve the Occupy Wall Street Spokes Council for months, had presented a proposal to the GA to dissolve Spokes. The proposal was tabled. Ms. Terrie does not have support from the OWS community, for reasons covered in my previous article titled Anti Rape Activist Nan Terrie Banned From Spokes Council. She was there at the General Assembly with her friends from Occupy Newark. As the GA was still considering a proposal to reduce the number of general assemblies, her friends had asked to be placed on stack. Apparently they didn't think it was a good idea to have less general assemblies.  They were apparently upset at Ms. Terrie's proposal being rejected by the OWS community. They decided to intervene on Nan's behalf and make statements. The facilitator informed them that stack was closed. The friends insisted they had the right to be on stack. The facilitator refused to put them on stack. Nan's crew grew angry, and loudly disrupted the meeting making accusations of oppression and marginalization. The team proposing reduce the number of GA's tabled the proposal and left.  Meanwhile, supporters of the GA argued with Nan's crew.  The situation escalated into violence. After things simmered down, the GA made a statement condemning the violence of the act, and Nan Terrie herself. Sage and one other member of the GA pointed out that they came from abusive backgrounds and that they held no interest in being in abusive environments or seeing abuse. A woman of color in the General Assembly said that people of color cannot use racism and marginalization to get away with the acts of violence, or to oppress and bully others. After hearing statements from Occupiers, Nan's crew seemed to calm down and they returned to their bus on the way to Newark.

Lady Gaga Revolutionized Female Pop Videos

Lady Gaga completely changed videos and the music of female pop. Every since the late 80s, most female artists did music videos that focused on the singer as the leader dancer, and her back up dancers.

Essentially, these were the same lame Janet Jackson/Paula Abdul dance moves and model. Lame not because of these two ladies, but because the industry pretty much seemed to stick to that and only that when it came to videos of nearly all female artists.

When Gaga hit the scene with her extremely visual videos, this model was broken. Gaga's videos contain artistic storytelling. Her huge popularity inspired other artists like Rihanna, Beyonce, Cristina, Nicki Minaj, Britney, among others, to unleash their inner freaks in their artworks. As each inner freak is her own person, the videos of female artists became a lot more freaky and weird, but in good ways that suited the individual artist. Gaga's revolution helped open the door to songs and videos like Rihanna's S&M.

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Poultry/Large Birds Are an Important Part of Farms and Gardens

 

Large fowl can be an important part of organic gardening. For those who live in rural areas, birds such as ducks, geese, guineas, chickens, turkeys, and peafowl can serve many purposes. Bird dropping are a very good organic fertilizer. Typically, people place their birds in a secure pen or house at night (to secure from predators). Every now and then, the bedding in these places (I used hay or pine straw) needs to be changed. The bedding serves as an excellent mulch/fertilizer (as it is full of bird droppings).

Geese, can be used as weeders. The little goslings, especially, can be trained to eat newly emerging grass and weeds that sprout up in one's garden. Adult geese graze grass, so they can be used to eat the grass from around plant that they have no interest in eating. Examples of this are fruit orchards, strawberry fields, and grape vineyards. The other birds, are big consumers of insects, snails, slugs, other creepy crawly critters. Certain type of ducks, turkeys, and peafowl will even eat small rodents.

Geese act as sentries, honking whenever they see strangers. Guineas are also noisy. All of the birds mentioned in this article make good pets. Ducks and geese, as waterfowl, love to swim, so one needs a pond to keep them in. As for where to purchase these birds, one can check locally with farmers, check out listings on craigslist if you live in or near rural areas, or one can order from farms that sell poultry online (the birds will be shipped to you via the mail).

Another good reason to raise birds is for the eggs, or for the meat. Its a convenient way to ensure enough protein is in one's diet.

OWS Needs to Close Divide Between the Wealthier and Homeless Occupiers

 

A number of homeless people say they have felt marginalized within occupation. This causes tensions within the movement. A major issue is that there's a huge difference in lifestyle and attitudes between occupiers who have stable jobs and living situations, and those who get bounced from church to church. This distance must be addressed.

Part of the problem is, a change in the strategy of occupy can leave those homeless who have become dependent on it literally out in the cold in the winter. Placing people in churches is not a long term housing strategy, nor is a horizontal movement equipped to take care of a population that has members with special needs (such as mental illness).

There is a proposal being presented to the New York General Assembly on 1/24/2012 that we as a body help our fellow occupiers become self sufficient. This includes pointing people not familiar with the city to resources for medical care, jobs, housing, and social services. If the homeless amongst us have better resources and stable living situations, they can become better activists. Tools that most people use today, including most activists, are things one cannot afford if one is homeless. Those without income in occupy cannot afford cellphones (very useful not only in activism but in keeping in touch with one's family and friends, keeping up with medical appointments, helps in job searches, etc). No amount of “community” building can negate the fact everyone lives in the real world, and in the real world one needs money to obtain certain things.

If underprivileged occupiers are helped to become self sufficient, that will bridge the gap between occupiers and make for a stronger movement. And if we want to change the world, first we must be able to change ourselves.

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Chris Crocker: Leader of the Internet Revolution of Gays

Chris Crocker is an example of how the internet has changed things for gay entertainers. Previously, it was nearly career suicide to be an out gay performer of any sorts. With very few exceptions, gays didn't gay major roles in television, film, and there weren't many openly gay major singers. The gatekeepers in the old media, in order to play along with the public's homophobia, simply would not deal with gay actors, singers or comedians for the most part.

Yet new media companies have changed that. Anyone can post content on youtube, amazon, blogger, and other websites. The direct public is the judge of what material they like. And the public has overall liked Chris Crocker. He's gotten millions of hits on youtube. His songs are now available on Amazon and other downloadable sites for sale. And the best thing about Mr. Crocker is that he was a young self identified gay male from the start. He didn't have a career in show business for years, to be outed later on.

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Anti Rape Activist Nan Terrie Banned from Occupy Wall Street Spokes Council

On Friday, 1/20/2012, the spokes council voted to kick out its second member for committing an act of violence. Nan Terrie, of Strong Women Rule Working Group, was kicked out for violent behavior. According to Sean McKeon, who placed the proposal before the body, Ms. Terrie one week prior had punched someone. Other members of spokes accused Ms. Terrie of verbal aggression and of inappropriately interrupting meetings. This comes as the Occupy Movement drafts a safer space agreement which is supposed to cover a code of conduct that those in Occupy must adhere to if they want to be welcome in Occupy spaces.

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Spending Freeze Effects on Occupy Wall Street

On January 7, 2012, Jason Ahmadi presented a spending freeze proposal to the General Assembly. Mr. Ahmadi was concerned about the fact that the General Assembly had become all about spending. This completely took away from discussion on activism. On January 14^th, 2012, the General Assembly voted to freeze all spending, save previously agreed to contracts and obligations. This decision allowed funding to continue for the GA's website and other previously agreed to tech spending, housing, transportation, and medic.

The effects of this were almost immediate. General Assemblies previously would last almost three hours. But with money out of the equation, General Assemblies now last for only an hour. The only proposals that come forward now tend to be political, such as one that came forward on 1/19 on supporting union workers in California with a statement of solidarity. During this same weekend, unfortunately, there was another theft at West Park Presbyterian Church. As a result, Spokescouncil agreed to an exit strategy for those occupiers staying in the church. They were given two weeks to find alternate housing. The general consensus from spokes seems to be the housing program is over and that occupy will find no new housing for those occupiers without homes, instead the general direction seems to be to refer them to social services agencies or alternate housing in Newark, Connecticut, or Mt. Vernon. On the day of the spending freeze, Occupy Wall Street had only $170,000 left in its general fund. As donations have dried up, the existing contracts will burn up the remaining money in a month or two (even though no new spending is allowed).

This takes Occupy back to grassroots activism and to the volunteer effort that it always was. Occupy was never meant to be a charity that supports people indefinitely.

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Get My Exciting Sword and Sorcery Fantasy on Amazon

Set in contemporary times, Mother of Witches is based on Selene, the Greek goddess of the moon and witchcraft. After her apparent destruction centuries ago, Selene is revived in modern times by an archaeological expedition. Unless the researchers can find a way to destroy her, she will take over the world and create hell on earth. 

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Macchu Picchu, My Action/Adventure Novel is Available on Kindle

You can download my action book from Amazon.

Two parents trapped in a troubled marriage must go on an international expedition to Peru to save their children, or else there children will be killed.

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Occupy Finally Grows Balls and Kicks out a Criminal

Occupy Wall Street has been going out of its way not to marginalized people. Its an inclusive movement. Unfortunately, in the effort to include everyone, criminals have infiltrated the movement. There has been plenty of discussion on how to deal with them. Unfortunately, nothing typically took place, as there were generally outcries of racism, sexism, and other isms.

Finally, sanity has been arising. The housing program agreed not to house Tonye Iketubosin, a man who allegedly raped one occupier and sexually assaulted another, and who is on trial for these incidents. But the most game changing incident occurred on night of Jan. 18^th. A homeless man by name of Will demanded a metrocard from the team that distributed metrocards at spokescouncil. To be eligible for metrocards, one must be in a OWS working group, and each working group gets only limited number of metrocards for its members. When he wasn't given a metrocard, he stole one. It led to a violent confrontation in which Will assaulted several occupy members. The police had to be called. They came twice and one person was taken away on an ambulance. Jeffrey Brewer, presented an emergency proposal to the spokescouncil to have them ban Will from OWS housing and other OWS spaces such as spokes. The proposal was debated for hours, but in the end it passed. Will is banned from OWS spaces, pending a community safer spaces agreement.

Also many sought to pass friendly amendments to water down Mr. Brewer's proposals, in the end there no escaping how this emergency procedure created a precedent. While when the park was in operation, trouble makers were ejected from the park, there has never been a proposal passed by spokes or GA that banned someone from OWS spaces in general. Not only does this help ensure the safety of occupiers, this actually helps other homeless. Will, by stealing and being violent, gave all homeless people a bad name and made more people reluctant to work with homeless people. This is unfortunate as there are truly nice people who are homeless due to hard times in life. I applaud Mr. Brewer for pushing this through spokes and I applaud spokes for passing this. Troublemakers cannot be allowed to sabotage the most important political movement of a generation. And also, as human beings, we are all bound to treat each other with respect. And we have obligations to laws, city, state, and federal that must be followed. This man, by stealing a metrocard and assaulting occupiers, quite clearly demonstrated no respect for other individuals, the community, or the laws.

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The Degeneration of Occupy Wall Street Into A Charity

In the beginning, Occupation Camps were wonderful places to meet people from all walks of society. One could meet college students, lawyers, writers, filmmakers, artists, union workers, educators, homeless people, waiters, etc. It has a great cross pollination of ideas, and people of all races, genders, and orientations were there. This degree of interaction rarely exists in society, and I certainly haven't see it in New York until Occupy. But sadly, things have degenerated. OWS is now basically just a charity for vagabonds.

When the camp was still up, there were those who were worried about infiltrators working on the behalf of the government. However, undercover agents are not what brought OWS down.

The problem is, a number of the campers were people from other states who came to New York with no money, no place to stay, and no resources. After the camp shut down, considerable resources were spent on trying to house this population, to feed this population, and to give this population weekly metro cards so they can use public transportation here in New York. Essentially, instead of the movement focusing on making things better for working people, its became a collection of people who are never going to get a job or contribute to society in a worthwhile way. These people are freeloaders, vagabonds, and are simply lazy bums.  Defacto, they became one big agent provocateur. 

At a spokescouncil meeting Dec. 12 ^th , 2011, a woman reported occupiers were kicked out of housing for throwing feces out of a window. On Tuesday, Dec. 13 ^th 2011, the point man for housing, Jeff,  reported the reasons why some occupiers were kicked out of church housing. These reasons included stealing from the church, doing drugs and alcohol in the church, and sex in the church. These vagabonds are also in poor health from their lifestyle. As the weather has gotten cooler, many are growing rather ill. Unstable housing and exposure to the cold is sickening them and this will only get much worse January through March.

This doesn't mean that Occupy Wall Street didn't have positive effects. Occupy Wall Street did change the nation's narrative.
The mainstream media recently reported half the nation is poor. Its no longer taboo to talk about poverty. The government is no longer interested in cutting all taxes and eliminated all services including education, infrastructure maintenance, and security. The tea party is unheard these days.
At the same point, the desire to be inclusive has killed off Occupy as a force going forward, because it has allowed and tolerated behaviors that are unacceptable to at least 99% of the country.

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California Leads the Fight Against Social Injustice

California is the nations biggest economy and most populous state. As such, it has always had huge impacts on the nation. Pop culture largely comes out of Los Angeles, home to the film and television industries. The technology sector innovations largely come from silicon valley. There are complaints about some of California's influence on the nation, particularly the consumerism coming from the pop culture. And while excessive consumerism promoted by the media is certainly bad, a number of good things shaping the way we live are out of California. Arguably, California is reshaping our society and the world as we speak.

California helped lead the push for more organic goods. Trader Joes, a chain big in California, lead the push for healthier foods in grocery stores. California was the first to ban smoking in restaurants, bars, and hotels, saving the lungs of employees and customers who don't smoke.
The technology, internet film, and the consumer electronic devices designed in California have made news spread much more rapidly around the world. This helped the occupation movement spread out of New York and go worldwide. The availability of cheap recording devices has turned the average person into a reporter or journalist. But the most important contribution California has made in recent years and currently is California was always a hotbed of activism. In 2005, public transportation workers in Los Angeles went on strike for a couple of months. The same year saw grocery store chains in California go on strike when the corporations that own Ralph's, Albertson's, and Von's go on strike. The Hollywood guilds constantly fight for the benefit of their members (pensions, benefits, royalties). This is how California function before the state budget was decimated in the past couple of years and before the University of California tuition skyrocketed. It makes perfect sense that Oakland was the first city to have a general strike, considering the overall pro labor culture of California. And it makes sense California students would be the first to strongly challenge outrageous tuition increases. The authorities crapped down brutally in California, but this has only ignited more protests. At UC Davis, you have the first instance of two cops and a police chief being put on leave for employing brutal tactics on protesters. And in California, the students are now working with labor and non profit organizations to overturn the artificially low property taxes in California. This ridiculously low rate of taxation is why the nation's largest economy is having difficulty paying for services. Yet California students are leading the fight to reform and raise certain taxes in California.

Part of the reason the crackdown was so brutal in California is because as California goes to the protesters side, so goes the nation. So they were hoping to squash the movement there. Instead, they poured gasoline on an open fire and created a forest fire.

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Discrimination And Nepotism In Hollywood

My battle to diversify film has been years in the making.   I wrote 8 screenplays, and over the years, attempted to shop them to major Hollywood producers and agencies.   I was told that no producer or studio accepts unsolicited screenplays, and one needed to be represented by an agent in order to get read.  Most screenplays sold to Hollywood producers are studios are sold by two agencies, CAA and WME. While these agencies have a de facto monopoly on screenplay sales, a few studios monopolize the distribution of film. Upon contacting the agents, I was told I needed to be referred to them by a major player in the film industry.   This scenario is a completely catch 22 that disproportionately locks non whites and women out of the film industry; as one must find a major player in order to get read by an agency.  The major players are disproportionately white and male, and tend to prefer to back other white males.  According to a study published by the writers guild, only 5% of screenwriters in 2011 where non white.  But this nepotism goes far beyond racism. The key industry figures tend to prefer to refer their relatives. Even most whites have no access to a number of high paying industry positions that are reserved for industry elites.  Examples of high profile people in the film industry inheriting their place in it are Kate Hudson (daughter of Goldie Hawn), Tom Cruise (son of a casting director), Michael Douglas (son of Kirk Douglas), among others too numerous to name. These are actors, but it clearly shows how important one's family connections are industry wide. Quite clearly, the industry isn't interested in talent . Its interested in your connections ,and major agencies do not try to hide it.

 The lack of diversity for screenwriters and other behind the scene jobs in film is especially appalling when one considers the large number of non whites in both Los Angeles and New York, the two centers of the film industry.  Arguably, keeping the film industry closed means you have very few very points in film, which has profound effects on media.  This negatively affects pop culture in general. This lack of diversity in screenwriters, agents, producers and other behind the scenes film industry people leads to a lack of diversity within the actors. The most popular genres, such as fantasy, action, and other movies that make up the summer blockbusters, very rarely have black actors in major roles, and essentially never have identifiable hispanic or asian actors in major roles. The superhero movies have been very lucrative for Hollywood. But the only blacks to have substantial roles in this genre are Halle Berry (who played Storm in the X-Men) and Will Smith (In Hancock he played a demigod of sorts). The fact that you rarely see non whites with superpowers or playing divine beings in movies is a form of racism, as allows only one group of people to play evolved humans or divine beings. Not only are non whites typically not in superhero movies, they tend to be found mostly in lower budget comedies or from the hood films, such as Spike Lee's earlier productions. Non whites are concentrated in very stereotypical roles such as gangsters, maids, prostitutes, and victims. The film industry helps perpetuate stereotypes that affect how people perceive non whites. In essence this helps perpetuate racism.

An example of how the industry perpetuates racism is the cop shows. The police officers are glorified and are the stars of the show, while the poor criminals (usually non white) are there in bit roles. So the public sees the officers point of view, but never sees the viewpoint of the poor victims. In short, people in poor neighborhoods themselves are vilified. This has encouraged a percentage of the public to automatically assume that when one has a problem with the police, that the accused is automatically guilty. In urban areas, its created support for supposedly cleaning up neighborhoods. But when these neighborhoods are cleaned up by massive police sweeps (think Times Square) all that does is push the problem elsewhere. Cop shows will not deal with matters such as treatment for addiction, education, and the procurement of employment. These are the things that can reduce crime among the poor, as Hillary Clinton once said, the best social program is a good job. Media portrayals of poor urban areas may make it more difficult for people from said areas to find employment. Living in such badly regarded areas taints the reputation of one living there.
The corporate monopolies which go out of their way to keep the film industry a closed industry also arguably harm art itself. They are risk averse, meaning that they stick to same formulas in film and television. New stories tend not to get told, as the decision makers would rather stick to what they consider safe bets. This leads to constant remakes of old television shows and B movies. It also leads to the effective replay of one television show. An example of this is the Golden Girls. The character types shown in this show where the intelligent modern woman, the idiot, the wise guy, and the whore. For awhile, this became a standard in television shows with female leads, as Designing Women, Living Single, and Sex and the City followed these character types so closely you de facto had the same show simply being played by different actors. This is a big factor in why television shows lost audiences to the reality tv shows, and to the internet. As US demographics change even more (Hispanics are the biggest minority) the film industry itself risks losing audiences if its films don't reflect the public.
The form of nepotism in entertainment also helps create the extreme disparities of wealth that one finds in Los Angeles and in New York.  Non whites who live in these very expensive cities don't have access to high paying jobs in these monopolies, and therefore tend to be pushed to the periphery of these metropolitan areas. Its time the public takes action to stop this. I recently sued Creative Artists Agency and the William Morris Agency in an attempt to open up their procurement of screenwriters. This would be only a first step to bring more diversity and transparency to the film industry, and to the larger media.   This is only a first step in creating a media that shows more diverse viewpoints.  Others need to weigh on on this struggle, and certain Occupy movements are already starting to do so, such as the recent Occupy Fox Studios, and other Occupy organizations.

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