GOLIS: Fan mail (of sorts) for Occupy Wall Street

Dear Occupy Wall Street (Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Sebastopol, Healdsburg and elsewhere) people:

We appreciate you. We really do. But can't you get your stuff together?

Permits here, permits there. Who cares?

All this random camping isn't advancing the cause of economic equality. It's becoming a distraction from the issues that matter, and it's becoming a drain on your credibility.

Even your most ardent defenders know it. You may have noticed they're keeping their distance lately. They're beginning to talk about you in the past tense.

A Field Poll last week found that three in five Californians support the sentiment behind the Occupy movement, but less than half identify with the protesters.

You know why: People worry that the movement has become a weigh station for fringe groups and for folks with struggles of their own. Compassion is a wonderful thing, but you aren't helping homeless people by defending their right to pee on the City Hall lawn in Santa Rosa or camp out on the plaza in Sebastopol.

No one asked me — I don't even like camping — but if the goal is to restore economic equality in America (and renew the Occupy movement before it's too late), here's what I would do.

Stop pretending that you can stand for a dozen or more causes. You have one cause: Economic inequality.

You changed the conversation in this country when you talked about the accumulation of wealth among the top 1 percent. Everyone knows what you mean by the 1 percent and the 99 percent.

While focusing on economic inequality, you can include other issues — unemployment, financial regulation, education, money in politics, housing — but keep it simple. Don't let the message be diffused by every activist with a sign looking for a place to get noticed. That way leads to confusion and failure.

Don't let the the fantasy people run away with your message. It's pleasant to wish that all mortgages will be canceled, or that money will fall from the sky, but it's also silly.

Be inclusive. Schedule rallies at times and places that allow people who support your cause to attend.

Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez last week suggested renting buses for Occupy L.A. protesters, moving them about in what he called "squeals on wheels."

That would be OK, I guess, but the movement needs to grow rather than limit itself to people who have the time to ride around in a bus all day. Most people need to go to work when they can, and otherwise get on with their lives — while still finding opportunities to testify for economic and political reforms.

When 2,500 people rallied in downtown Santa Rosa a few weeks ago, they provided a powerful statement about the anger and frustration Americans feel. I know all kinds of people who attended that rally because they had waited so long for an opportunity to express their disappointment about the direction of their country.

If 2,500 people showed up every week (or even every month) to express their disappointment, that would be huge.

Select leaders. All this blah-blah-blah about the perfect democracy and everyone with an equal voice at every meeting is all very nice, but it doesn't work. Movements have leaders. See Martin Luther King. See Gandhi.

Rent an office. Social media is great, but some folks need a place to find information, meet and organize.

Don't let the movement be hijacked by political insiders. All kinds of people have been harmed by the economic violence of the last decade. Welcome them all, Democrats and Republicans and tea partiers. You might find out you have more in common than you know.

Be patient. The current economic troubles and the political dysfunction are an accumulation of years of neglect and corruption. It won't be repaired in a year or two — and it won't be repaired at all if we don't get started.

I know. Anytime three of the Occupy faithful gather on a street corner, there are at least four opinions about what to do next. They're not likely to take advice from the likes of me — or anyone else for that matter.

But it's too bad. Americans are desperate for a way to voice their aspirations for change, and for a brief time, the Occupy movement tapped in to those ambitions.

Now it's wandering off into the weeds, leaving the rest of us to prepare for the election year from hell.

Imagine choosing between (1) a Democratic president who disappointed us and (2) any from an oddball collection of Republicans who can't even win favor in their own party.

We need a movement here, people.

Pete Golis is a columnist for The Press Democrat. Email him at golispd@gmail.com.