People Uprising |

We're thrilled with the growing Occupy Wall Street movement, and want to learn from their tenacity and ingenuity. We're proud to support a movement that's demanding a better world for everyone, and organizing itself along the way, allowing room for a democratic process naturally. They believe fiercely in their cause, and it's becoming clear that more and more people are realizing that they, too, are part of the 99%. With increased participation across the country, it also seems that hope for the world Occupy Wall Street envisions is contagious.

A few weeks ago, we took part in a peace march with our partners, SOS Crown Heights, and couldn't help but see a parallel between this community-wide march and the bigger one across the Hudson River on Wall Street. We discovered a collection of people working together in natural harmony, fighting for a better community for their neighbors and themselves. SOS Crown Heights works day in and day out to end gun violence, like OWS members work in Zucotti Park. They keep a daily count of shootings in Crown Heights. When we were there, the dry erase sign in their window said it had been 2 days since their last shooting. And they respond to every shooting that happens.

It's this diligence, this tirelessness, this compassionate dedication to their cause that makes SOS Crown Heights successful. (They've had a 60% reduction in shootings since they began their CeaseFire program.) It's also what makes OWS continue to grow.

Hopefully we can learn from OWS and make local anti–gun violence movements like the one in Crown Heights broader and bigger, too big to fail.

For OWS news, go here.