Brian Selander to those of you who don’t know, is a really good guy… I bet he wishes (like most dads), that he had more time to spend with his children….

It happens quickly. You get a call. You just sat down at the dinner table. It’s a Sunday, the only time you ever get to spend with your family, … and it’s a reporter who says: “Occupy Delaware just defied the state government and is staking a claim at that plaza beside the Federal Building in Wilmington. Do you want to go on record with any statement or comment, considering you have now been defied and all?”

You want to say, “I’m eating dinner with my family. Leave me alone, Ms Reporter!”… but you don’t.

Instead the words come out without you thinking as that delicious smell of food that you almost had in your mouth, becomes all you really care about, and that professional part of you that functions so much that it is automatic, takes over and says something like: “The state made a very reasonable offer with the use of state managed properties at Brandywine and Fletcher Brown park,” Selander said. “It was an offer that respected constitutional rights to be heard and assemble. They’ve chosen a different path.”

And it gets twisted like this: Brian Selander expressed dismay at the group’s decision to defy the state, for the second straight day, by choosing not to accept the Brandywine Park permit.

Thinking you made a neutral statement that says nothing but holds them off for a while, you exit and go back to your dinner.

You can be forgiven. I WOULD HAVE SAID THE SAME THING, primarily because I wouldn’t have had time to think about it first….

But thinking changes things, a lot.

This is not some ragtag group of protesters. These are former professionals, people currently employed or not, who are scared to death, that their country is going down the wrong path, fast. As much as you and Jack have been scrambling to bring jobs here to Delaware, YOU KNOW THEY ARE RIGHT!!

We ARE going down the wrong path, … and HAVE BEEN, ever since the 2000 elections! And the nuts who got elected from conservative districts in 2010, haven’t helped!

What you have underestimated, Brian, is the amount of resonance this movement has. They, are expressing the sentiments of a vast majority of humanity. Those human beings have looked for “hope” when “change” was promised… and not delivered. They looked with “promise”, when “throwing out the bums” was “delivered”, but things got worse. What you may not realize is that most Americans look at this Occupy Movement, and say, “finally, finally, someone is saying what we feel. Even better, someone is doing something about it! It may not be much, but at least, SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING!”

You, dear colleague, have the most unenviable task. In a way, you are in the exact same position as was King George’s governor of Massachusetts, attempting to put down the rebellious nature of its citizens…. If you remember history, you have only one time, ONE TIME, to get it right. Had the British immediately repealed the Stamp Act, and said, “thanks Colonies, for bringing it to our attention; you’re right, it was stupid of us to try that! Forgive us, we’ll do our best to act better in our future,” seriously, we’d be speaking Kings English right now. There would be no United States of America because there would not have been an American Revolution. In fact, as things continued to unravel in the colonies, the British did just that: repealed the Stamp Act. (Yep, it was too late.)

Instead, the initial reaction was a response to those catcalls from the insignificants on the sidelines: “are you letting them get away with it? Are you some kinda pussy or something” (To be perfectly clear, I am talking about real cats here). They felt they had to show who was in charge and they cracked down, killing 6 in a massacre, and then later, sneaking off to the arsenals of Lexington and Concord to confiscate their powder and arms….

Bad plan.

Today no one knows off the top of their head, the name of that governor of Massachusetts. But his actions, at his expense, planted the seed that grew into the greatest nation this planet has ever known.

Since you are a great guy, and have a family, and are in a very, very difficult position right now, I’m going to advise you how to work your way out of it… I could do it in an email, but I fully believe in public disclosure, for the simple reason that if I do it here, all know, and if the possibility rises that a flaw exists, someone is sure to point it out in public, and the action in question can be amended to cover that detail. Make sense?

Never give into bullies. The bullies here are NOT the “Occupy Movement.” They are Greg Lavelle and the 9/12 Patriots. How many Republicans are there in Delaware? You don’t need them. You do need the rest of us. So what I would do, is strategically take this approach.

“These people are citizens of this nation. They are protected by the U.S Constitution like everyone else. We are a fee based society. Sometimes, like the poll tax, those fees get in the way of pure democracy. Heaven forbid, that democracy could only exist, for those who could afford to pay a fee. In fact, the Stamp Act by the British, that event that triggered the American Revolution, was exactly that. A fee for a permit. Currently, the Occupy Movement is representing the revolutionary spirit that created this country. Likewise, they represent the moral equivalent of those who felt slavery, despite it’s being sanctioned by the Federal government, was intensely immoral, and an abomination. They too, like those who said it was wrong to have a second class citizenry, based solely upon the color of ones skin, even though that too, was approved and sanctioned by State governments around this nation.

For this reason, we are going to issue permits for this group. They have the same right as every citizen in America, to make their grievances known. When the wealthy lost an election, they had money to advertise, set up rallies, buy media spokespersons, pour unheard amounts of money into tiny local campaigns. But when the poor want to do the same, we say, sorry, you can’t because you don’t have cash…. and your checks come back stamped: insufficient funds.

One must wonder, if our current mayor, yes, that one who got his start during the Civil Rights movement right here in Wilmington, would be here today, if he, failed, yes, failed to lead a protest on some steps near here, because to do so, he would have first, had to pay a fee?

A fee/permit system is the surest method to silence the poor. Yet those who can’t afford it, were expressly given the same rights under the Constitution of the United States of America. They were given them, simply because, we were going to be a nation designed like no other, where each person, no matter his income, had the equal right to life, to liberty, and to their individual pursuit of happiness..

Like Philadelphia to the north of us, Baltimore to the south of us, New York to the northeast of us, we too will allow these citizens of the Occupy movement, to make their grievances known, in their own way. Their symbol of communication, is with tents. We ask, and have been given assurances, that they will respect every other citizen’s rights and property, in their pursuit of expressing their message.

We wish them luck with their endeavor.

Done.

Simple, short, to the point. Your second term is safe.

But, it couldn’t hurt to have the entire line of Democratic office holders, sail by Greg Lavelle, the GOP, and the 9/12 with gun-ports open, cannons fully loaded and primed, and unleash a fusilade of the like that has never before been seen, equating Greg Lavelle, the GOP, and the 9/12 Patriots with the likes of King George, Southern Plantation Owners, and Southern Whites who enforced segregation. That’s exactly what they are. Hanging on to power by impeding democracy; not celebrating it.