Wednesday, October 12, 2011

It's Time for Hazmat Suits on Wall Street: What Would Jane Addams Say? (UPDATED)

Trust-fund baby Jane Addams
cleaned up and built up.


Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.
                                                             ~Marcus Tullius Cicero
 
Over at her Corner, Adrienne has published links to on-the-scene reports, photos, and videos of the public health disaster that the Wall Street "occupation" in New York City has become. One look makes one wonder why men in hazmat suits have not yet been called in. Eventually, they will be.

If Zuccotti Square were a foreign country, the U.S. would require entering visitors to first receive inoculations against a variety of diseases. If Zuccotti Square were a detention facility for terrorists, the International Red Cross would be demanding entry and the U.N. would be holding emergency hearings.

In their haste to "give" (as Commie pot stirrer, Van Jones, has ecstatically exhorted the occupiers to redefine the word "take"), these useful idiots have, sadly, displayed an ignorance of the history of the "social justice" movement that would cause their peace-lovin' progressive forebears to disown them.

Back in the day, proponents of "social justice" like Chicago's Jane Addams didn't produce squalor, they fought it. This basic goal is one that their history-scorning, Wall Street-occupying heirs in the progressive "social justice" movement have utterly abandoned.

Addams and others like her fought battles getting fat ward bosses to institute such simple measures as regular garbage pickup and proper sewage disposal to rid neighborhoods of infestations of rats, mice, flies, and other disease-carrying pests.

Addams's generation of progressives fought additional battles to get people access to plenty of clean water because, then, as now, water and soap were humankind's chief weapons against the torments of lice, scabies, fleas, tapeworms, ringworm, and Nature's limitless host of infectious diseases.

Wall Street's old park used to get power washed every evening to clean away each day's gunk. Now that it's been taken over by progressives, it has become a breeding ground for all things unclean. 

Today's arrogant progressive "givers" think they have outgrown the need for such basic lessons of survival as their progressive ancestors taught in their lead-painted--but quaintly clean-swept and scrubbed--settlement houses like Jane Addams's Hull House.

Planning a month-long slumber party for, say, 3,000 people, Tweeter? How to dispose of their bodily wastes is not a virtual problem. And neither is how you are going to get all those biodegradable pizza boxes, compostable plates, and plant-starch cutlery to an actual composting facility for real-life rotting.

The fact that the enfant terrible supporters of Occupy Wall Street never stopped to consider such basic lessons of survival (never mind good manners) should give them pause for thought.

It is time the occupiers asked themselves, "What else have we forgotten?"

Update: 

Linked By Brian J. Dunn at The Dignified Rant, who suggests that the occupiers "live with the consequences of their disgusting personal hygiene and stewardship of their local environment." 

That's no problem for the occupiers, it seems, because even now, they are celebrating having turned down the park owners' generous offer to clean up after them (as a stand-in for Big Mommy) and then let them return to "spreading the filth around." 

Go to the Rant to watch Monty Python's hilarious commentary on the subject. Thank you Brian.

__________

7 comments:

  1. Can you imagine being a decent law-abiding citizen of New York and having to walk by that garbage (that includes the people) every day?

    I don't understand why this allowed to continue. It seems in today's world the worst behavior is given the most protection. The city has already spent over 2 million in over-time for the police. Why aren't the rights of the tax-payers being defended?

    Thanks for the link...

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Adrienne -- My experience tells me this mess is being allowed to continue because Hizzoner the mayor wants it to continue.

    I'm reasonably sure that I'm too innocent to imagine the stench of whatever political machinations are so bad that they must be concealed behind this distracting spectacle, but I am definitely not so innocent as to imagine that the rest of us won't be required to pay for it, one way or another.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The saddest part, most of them still have no idea what it is all about.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Trestin -- It occurs to me that most of them have no idea about the roots of efforts to achieve "social justice" because they aren't interested in justice in any form. If they do encounter justice, they will be shocked indeed. And most of them will encounter some form of justice, Natural Law being what it is.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't have an issue with them protesting, but they should be required to follow the laws.

    So far in DC they have been for the most part. I am talking soley about the park they are staying in.

    Have you heard that they have extended their permit for 4 months? If I am not mistaken, the park is federal property.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @girl -- Funny how easy things go for you when the President of the United States thinks you're an asset.

    ReplyDelete