The following letter to the editor was published in the El Segundo Herald newspaper (HeraldPublications.com) on Thursday, December 1, 2011 in the Letters section on page 2. The El Segundo Herald has a strict 250-word limit, including the title.
Occupy Everywhere Gripes without Merit
There is a disparity of wealth in the United States. Such is the price of freedom. Therefore, one should not despair that the rich are getting richer, while the gap between rich and middle class, or middle class and poor, seems to be widening.
The real statistics to pay attention to are the number of individuals in different income brackets, and the mobility of individuals from one bracket to another. This kind of scrutiny requires more room than hasty protesters can provide on dirty fragments of cardboard as the march aimlessly and purposelessly from one city to another.
From Portland to Oakland, from New York City to Los Angeles and across the global, Occupy Everywhere is wearing out its welcome. The people who are working, who are raising themselves and their families, in spite of the ongoing economic downturn, have more to gripe about, but they are not taking up the public square, spreading deviance and disease at the expense of their neighbors and neighborhoods.
Those who choose to occupy their homes, their workplaces, and continue doing what they need to do, even voting for better leadership or electing to take charge themselves, they deserve our attention, their concerns merit our concern.
Arthur Christopher Schaper
El Segundo Police Officers' Association (ESPOA) Exposed