Reaching Out and Gaining Support

[aoneill5190]

The issues being addressed by the #occupy movements are problems that are facing many more people than are appearing on Lasalle or Wallstreet. In order to be taken seriously and to help the news watcher at home who is living paycheck to paycheck, jobless, draining their retirement fund, paying a mortgage which is underwater, increasingly in debt as a result of student loans etc. We need to appear relate-able. It is too easy for the media to paint this as a youth, fringe element, or radical movement. Nothing radical is happening here, we are feeling the same anger our predecessors have felt time and time again. The great depression is a prime example. My point is it is important to dress in a way that demands respect. Dressing as professionals, even young professionals, will have positive effects.

-Viewers at home will see people who are serious and want to be taken seriously. They will be better able to see themselves in our shoes. They are also suffering but being a part of a "hippie" movement is not as appealing as a protest of the entire true middle class.

-The media will no longer be able qualify their reports with the words "youth, tattooed, ragtag, hipster,anarchist etc." Some people may identify with some of those labels and that is fine but to make a true impact the media needs to see people they consider to be contributors. People at home need to see people like them demanding the things they want to motivate them to come on down.

-We are demanding jobs, paths to financial security, an end to draining the middle class while the top 1% profits. The best way to demand jobs: dress like you're going to a job interview. We want financial security and so we should dress in a way that shows we are willing to work for it. If we are representing a shrinking middle class we should look approachable to the people at home who are suffering.

Whether of not you are marching for fun if you dress like you are going to a party people will think you are out there for fun (and consequently not take you seriously). This is important, livelihoods depend on it, dress as if it is important.

PS. I am not taking a stab at people's fashion choices. Whatever your personal style is dress in a way you consider to be "nice". Think of a job interview, a date (minus the sexy factor), your grandma's birthday,a funeral, church for some. Any event where you take a moment to consider that your clothing choice reflects the respect you have for the occasion. Respect Occupy Chicago and dress accordingly. It will help.

 

[myanswer]

This is the best dress code I could find.  Lendio employs professional individuals in each capacity of employ. Typically, professional individuals have a brain and are at least borderline intelligent. Our dress code requires you to use the best judgment your brain can calculate to determine whether something you want to wear is appropriate for the workplace.

For example, most rational people agree that wearing T-shirts with obscenities or clothes with holes next to private body parts isn’t appropriate.

Lendio will continue with this loosely defined “Make Your Brain Use Good Judgment” dress code until employees abuse it and we’re forced to publish a bunch of restrictive, boring, stiff rules about what you can wear, how to groom yourself, and what type of hygiene to maintain.

So please, police yourselves and use good judgment so we don’t have to implement a dress code as a result of one individual’s bad judgment, which might lead to disgruntled peers having to visit a psychiatrist to get over their emotional pain and suffering.

What do you think? Any suggestions to improve our dress code?

Myanswer

[myanswer]

In the 1960's civil rights movement we dressed in suit coats, dress shirts and ties. When we were clubbed, spat upon, hosed and attacked by dogs and police in riot gear the images seared the conscious of America and bought about change.

Image is everything in a movement. Image can turn the tide for us or against us. We have to define our own image. When the authorities crack down to put an end to our protests the image we project will make or break us. If it is a professional image, people see themselves being treated unfairly and join us. If our image is unprofessional  people feel we deserve to be treated unfairly. Our image is the face of our movement. I always come in shirt and tie. Those of you that can, I hope will choose to do the same. That said I respect our diversity and hope no one feels offended by these posts.

[Billy]

     If we start trying to live up to what the MSM news media expects of us then we have already lost. If we as a people of the world can not look past what each other is wearing and into the person inside then we will never win.

 

     Many people said it at tonight's GA we need to be the change we want to see in the world. If the world that you want to live in puts what a person wears over what the person is then I suggest to live that way. If you would like an open more accepting more egalitarian world then I suggest you live in that manner.

 

     I see a world in which everyone is equal not just in theory but in effect. I don't see how we'll get there standing on the street corner in suits perpetuating the very system we seek to take down. We are the example to the system of what this world is becoming. We have homeless people with us that are incredible and have lots to offer, a lot more than any of the people in the buildings around HQ with men that wear $1000 suits and ruin the world.

 

     That is not to mention the fact that the kind of people that we both need and are likely to connect with can not afford to dress that way and we would be isolating ourselves from them. Most of this country is unemployed or under employed.

 

     If you want to display our power to the so called " power elite " who do you think we need to connect with? I'll tell you this, get the teachers and the cabbies and the bus and train drivers. Combine them with the service workers and you are almost unstoppable. Shut down the buses and trains and taxis then shut down the schools so all the kids are at home and you shut this city down.

 

     Now you get the people that empty the garbage and clean the bathrooms to not show up and the people that run the parking garages and the city will be closed.

 

     That is where the power lies. Not in the boardrooms. You want to see panic in city officials shut that city down for a day and see who the news media is laughing at.

 

     We are the 99% that run this fucking world. We don't beg to be treated as equals we enforce it. We don't beg to be heard beg to be paid attention to we show them who really has the power. That is the world we are headed to.

 

     If you want to chase after non-unionized middle managers and office workers go a head. I put my faith in the people wearing uniforms with their first name embroidered on it.