The Oct. 17 editorial, “Why is no one organizing Occupy Eastern?” had a good recommendation. Students at EIU need to demonstrate and need to distinguish themselves by doing it peacefully, politely, and respectfully of the police and public sanitation. “Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative, don’t mess with Mr. in between!” Clarity as to the mission should include the correct targets of the demonstration. Certain private corporations should be targeted with peaceful demonstrations. Those corporations are GE, GM, Chrysler, and especially Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two FMs were strongly involved in the present financial crisis. They and the others named receive taxpayer funded support. Do you want their special favors to continue? If you do, while supporting excessive government spending, we will become like Greece, and nobody will be able or willing to rescue us financially. This is a time for sober thinking, not a time for delusionally inspired activity and demands.

Very truly yours,

Leonidas H. Miller

Mattoon

In response to the staff editorial of Oct. 17, “Why is no one organizing Occupy Eastern,” I find several holes in the logic. First and foremost, the Occupy movement “lacks a focused platform,” as stated in the column. I don’t know about you, but a bunch of people who have no solid idea about what they’re angry about is merely an unruly mob. You just have to look at the violence between protesters and police in New York City and Rome to see how ugly a version at EIU could become. Secondly, claiming that Wall Street is the only culprit in this so-called crime and saying that the protesters are unemployed or underemployed “through no fault of their own” is hogwash. If people just lived within their means, paid off their debts in a timely fashion, and been informed about what exactly is going on in the markets, they’d be sitting pretty. Both the protesters and Wall Street are to blame.

Thirdly, an “Occupy Eastern” protest is a losing battle from the start. Charleston is a relatively small town, and nowhere near Chicago or St. Louis. The University of Illinois and Illinois State University protests make more sense because there’s a more likely chance for publicity. Furthermore, the logistics of such an event would be a total nightmare; a classic breeding ground for Murphy’s Law: “What can go wrong; will go wrong, and in the worst way.”

Grassroots activism is great, but common sense trumps reactionary imitations.

Michael Skasick

Freshman – English major