today we are awake and we have had enough

Virtually every government institution suffers from an inherent lack of accountability, whereas private enterprise cannot survive a hugh waste of money. Nothing prevents federal, state, and local government agencies from stumbling along in a loosely and inefficiently run system that has been plagued with problems for years. Private enterprises spend their own money within the constraints of a balance sheet. They are either efficient or they are finished. Not so with government agencies.

Inefficiency and waste are everywhere. The Post Office, railroads, solar projects, state governments and city governments and even banks are for the most part running on deficit spending. The list of failures grows as one after another defaults on payments, declares bankruptcy, or scrambles to find new sources of revenue to survive.

Unemployment and welfare are overtaxed by the unemployed or underemployed. Medicare and Medicaid are rife with fraud and over extended by too many qualified recipients as well.

The government agencies look to paternal government in Washington DC to bail them out of their difficulties. We citizens must declare bankruptcy, forego medical treatment or join the rest of the poor in inundating emergency rooms for our care, and we lose our homes to the very banks that were bailed out with our tax funds and we have nowhere to turn but to ourselves.

President Thomas Jefferson wrote many years ago, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be."

I believe what is happening today is a people waking up and refusing to live in ignorance, or refusing ignore what has been happening. It is time to reform government. It must be brought under control. It must behave responsibly to those who live and work or want to work and pay taxes and support a good nation with a good living standard.

Loose spending, bailing out those who have been gamboling and lost, is an action that cannot be supported. How did a corporation become a person? When did a business become too large to be allowed to fail? We the citizens have been sleeping and allowing things to happen without paying attention.

We have been foolish.

But today we are awake and we have had enough.

We are the 99%. We are those who are loosing jobs and homes and healthcare and we are uniting for the good of our nation and the survival of our people. Ignorance of what goes on has been allowed to destroy too much. We are no longer ignorant, nor ignoring, what our government is doing. That will not be the state of existence from now on. We are and will be free. We are willing, we are able, we are determined- we will be free. Our nation will again have jobs, an educated population, homes, the necessities of life for all, and we will pursue happiness wholeheartedly.

City of Albuquerque - "We work for the citizens"

The City of Albuquerque is making a statement under current Mayor Berry. "We work for the citizens".
 The city is working on putting the 6000 city employes into a list online that tells us their year-to-date earnings, on a website that tracks taxpayer funded salaries. The site, http://www.cabq.gov/abq-view , has previously posted only appointed positions and positions listed as the 250 highest paid workers. 

Barry said, "we shouldn't be ashamed or afraid to put out information that is already public information".
State employee salaries are made public by job title but names are withheld. The University of New Mexico has a list of all employees by name and salary in a single copy available at Zimmerman Library.

There have been problems with nopotism and discrimination in hiring. Today it is open for examination. On the city site you can look at who's working where, how much they're being paid, year to date earnings, and the position they hold. We're on the leading edge making it available and searchable, said Mayor Berry.

10/20/11 Three City Counselors support Occupy Albuquerque an offshoot from the Occupy Wall Street movement

Three Albuquerque, New Mexico councelors led a failed three to six vote hoping to see their proclamation accepted by their city council. They failed but kudos for trying, A for effort. Councelors Benton, Garduno, and Sanchez were courageous and should be respected and thanked for the effort. They wanted to bring attention to the message of the (un) Occupy Albuquerque movement and the general dissatisfaction with the status quo that leaves many unable to afford educations, loosing homes, and unemployed. Business is not the trouble but unregulated greed, manipulation of the stock markets through buying and dumping, bailouts rewarding failure in business, et. have broken our economy.

The following is taken from the 10/20/2011 Albuquerque Journal

without permission but hopefully without litigiousness’ also

The Counsel of the City of Albuquerque

October 17, 2011

Whereas, We know exactly what the protesters mean when they say we are the 99%, and

Whereas, Albuquerqueans know that being the 99% also means dealing with the historical legacy of occupation by foreign powers in pursuit of profit; being targeted today by polluting industries; and watching our tax dollars bail out wealthy corporations while young people can't afford to go to college; and

Whereas, The demands of this movement are the longstanding demands of all who organize for social justice, for the rights of children, for working families, for people of color, for immigrants, for the elderly, for indigenous nations who know all too well what occupation really means; and

Whereas, By contrast we know the 1% as well- or at least, we know them from a distance. They are the special 1% of our economic system that amasses tremendous wealth, and doesn't have to pay its fair share of taxes, that never struggles with joblessness, criminalization, poor education, or a broken care system; and

Whereas, They are the special class that gets bailed out when their financial ship begins to sink, then they thumb their noses at the thought of paying their fair share of taxes, or making a few fixes to protect families from the mad swings of unchecked greed, all the while their protectors in government threaten to slash our social safety nets and squeeze the programs that foster our local economies; and

Whereas, the City of Albuquerque supports and affirms the vision of the "occupy wall street" movement, which began as a center of struggle on Wall Street in New York City and has now grown to over 800 cities and towns throughout the country, including here in New Mexico; Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las Cruses, Taos, Carlsbad, Roswell, and Farmington.

BE IT PROCLAIMED THAT THE COUNCIL, THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE, THEREBY RECOGNIZES         

WE ARE THE 99% AND WE STAND WITH THE OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT