Well, It has been a while since I have involved myself in much activism, or much of anything as of late. Getting threatened with a $10,000 lawsuit will do that to a guy. Since the OccupyNH split, our operating capacity has been completely shattered. Some thought that preserving their Egos where far more important than compromise and preserving the movement. This led to the split, and the eventual incorporation of Occupy New Hampshire in the state of New Hampshire. Which as far as I understand, also does not have any operating capacity. I have to say, I miss activism. I miss working together and cooperating with individuals and organizations from across all political spectrums to try and learn and solve problems together. I miss the late nights. I miss the feeling like we were working for something. Like we were living for something. Most of all, I miss all the friends I’ve made over the year of the protester. It seems right now that things are too contentious for even those of us who were wronged to even get together. We have made multiple attempts to have meetings again, and to start being active again, but the events of the day of the split, and the consequences of the actions still linger over everyone’s head. I’d like to see peace, and I’d like to lay out how we could obtain it.
1. Re-Instate all users on the Facebook page who were banned for voicing their concerns. Open dialogue is healthy. Closing yourself off from reality is not.
2. Re-instate Admins of the Facebook group that were removed as content creators. Give those who want to participate their voice back on that page.
3. Make all usual suspects of banning users, content creators so they no longer will be tempted to take unilateral steps and ban other members.
4. Return to the consensus process. Begin the movement again, and keep with the consensus process. No matter how convenient it may be to go around it. It helps to prevent power grabs and other shenanigans from hi-jacking the conversation.
5. Have several meetings with all involved parties of the split, and figure out ways to de-escalate and re-humanize each other. It has been so long since we have seen each other, that it may be hard to picture the other side of the conflict as real live human beings who live and breathe and love and bleed and hurt when they are wronged or not listened to or respected.
6. Use Horizontal Stack to make sure all voices are heard. Or given the opportunity, and the individual chooses to either pass or comment.
I’m interested to hear what steps the other side of the split would like the rest of us to take to achieve peace. I know a few of us have already made peace, and have already met. I’d just like to see the rest able to communicate, and to try to restore the unity we once enjoyed so we can have a functioning movement again.
I want to just say, I’m working on updates for this site, and am looking for contributors. If you would like to become a part of the conversation and do regular updates for occupynewhampshire.org, please e-mail me. ryan.hirsch@occupynewhampshire.org
Thanks!








