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OWS Needs New M.O.

Originally Published in the Frederick News-Post

Government Transparency

by Marta Hummel Mossburg

OP-EDS

Occupy Wall Street is an authentic street protest movement in the same way the ubiquitous Baltimore formstone is real stone.

It has the veneer of organized resistance, replete with disgruntled youth, homemade signs and disruptive behavior, but it lacks a unifying mission. And protesters, at least in Baltimore, seem more interested in practicing what looks like tai chi and playing guitar than rallying residents to their cause.

Maybe it's because their purpose is defined only by vague complaints: that the rich need to pay their (undefined) fair share; that government needs to return to the people; that (unnamed) Wall Street criminals be put in prison; that we build too many prisons and not enough schools; and that (an unidentified) "they" are allowed to run the world for themselves.

Some of their musings -- at least those outlined on the occupybmore.org website -- make sense and deserve a wider audience. The fact that a handful of developers are the only people allowed to thrive in the City of Baltimore is one of them.

The same could be said of most counties in the state. That theme could have been the rallying cry for a string of targeted protests around Maryland; would have brought attention to how politics works in this one-party fiefdom; and would have had a chance to force government to work for the people instead of the politically favored. But so far, protesters have squandered their chance to be relevant.

Here are a few examples of how they could trigger social change:

They could show up at the headquarters of the state Department of Housing and Community Development in Crownsville in Anne Arundel County to protest the agency's planned move to Prince George's County. The new headquarters will more than double the rent and force major commutes for many employees. The developer of the new site, Carl Williams, has donated thousands of dollars to Democrats. The state has revealed nothing about him, however, other than that he is a resident of Prince George's County. Nor will the state release his group's winning proposal.

Or they could camp out at Rocky Gap Lodge and Golf Resort, the taxpayer-bailed-out resort near Cumberland, where no sane business will put a slots casino.

A third option would be to occupy the area of the planned $1.5 billion State Center project in Baltimore. It will cost taxpayers $127 million in the first phase, according to a July report by the Maryland Public Policy Institute, while guaranteeing above-market rents and tax breaks to developers -- and luxury office space for state workers at a time so many are struggling to find jobs.

Wall Street bankers may be easy to vilify, but Maryland has plenty of homegrown crony capitalists equally worthy of identifying and shaming. Until protesters turn their attention -- and the media's with it -- to local and specific examples of their complaints, politics won't change. Unless not showering for weeks and sleeping outside is the only satisfaction protesters hope to achieve, they need rethink their goals and strategy.