Honk if you:
Oppose corporate greed.
Oppose poverty.
Oppose genetically modified organisms.
Support affordable housing.
Support animal rights.
Support monetary reform.
Support consensus-based decision-making.
Support a better world.
Just a few of the reasons that crowds of people are camped out in front of the art gallery this morning, symbolically Occupying Vancouver.
Most of us are appropriately opposed and in favour, but most of us have to go to work, so we probably only have time to honk as we go by.
At least, I think it’s OK, but be careful – police are ticketing enthusiastic supporters of Occupy Seattle for the crime of drive-by honking and violating noise bylaws. It could happen here.
Maybe you’d like to honk, but are a little nervous about tooting your horn so soon after the hockey riot. If people run amok when the Canucks lose a hockey game, honking against corporate greed could really set them off.
And what about the art gallery? Here they are trying to run nice little exhibits on surrealism or post-modern expressionism, but there are always these people sprawled all over their front yard, smoking marijuana and making speeches. No wonder the art gallery wants to go somewhere else.
It might be fun to honk in support of saving the whales or seizing the means of production from the capitalist roaders, but how will that change anything? What’s more effective: honking and making speeches or trying to convince the Japanese and the Norwegians to stop their barbaric whale hunts? (Answer: none of the above, apparently.)
And as for the capitalists, I defer to John Lennon (not to be confused with that other Lenin, who didn’t like capitalists either):
“You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We’d all love to see the plan.”
Which reminds me: How is the new boss different than the old boss? If the Occupy Movement is so different and inclusive and “transparent,” why did the organizers prevent reporters and TV cameras from covering their planning meeting on Friday…. What have they got to hide?
Still, as honking is a right protected in the Charter (freedom of expression), go ahead and honk. But why confine it to the occupiers of the art gallery?
Honk as you go by First United or the Union Gospel Mission, where scores of volunteers work tirelessly to feed and clothe the homeless. And the next time you drive by your local MP’s or MLA’s office, honk to acknowledge the job they do on your behalf.
Everybody wants a better world. And everybody has a horn.
You know what to do.
