Occupy Rehoboth spotlights stalled economy

Hundreds of shoppers turned out for Friday night's Cocoa Crawl in Rehoboth Beach, when stores and restaurants teamed up to offer snacks and drinks as well as sales and discounts.

Visitors joined many locals, who strolled downtown streets, ran into friends they hadn't seen during busy summer months and shopped and dined in downtown businesses that stayed open late.

Meanwhile, in Bridgeville, an estimated 120,000 people turned out for World Championship Punkin Chunkin, Sussex County's homegrown celebration of engineering and invention.

In the midst of these festivities came Occupy Rehoboth, which attracted more than 200 people to the Bandstand in Rehoboth to protest the growing disparity between what the top 1 percent of income-earners make and what everyone else does. With homemade signs, they demanded fairness, jobs, and an end to greed and foreclosures.

One of very few protesters in the under-50 age group said she was participating to support educated people, who are graduating from colleges and graduate schools with high-level skills but no job prospects.

A marine microbiologist, the protester said it had been her goal to give back to a nation that helped finance her education, but jobs in her field have virtually disappeared.

She's now considering working in Europe, where her skills are valued and in high demand.
These events show the entrepreneurial spirit, ingenuity and commitment to democratic rights that move our community and our nation forward are alive and well in Sussex County.

Despite problems, our schools, colleges and universities continue to turn out some of the best and brightest in the world, and our citizens and businesses demonstrate in countless ways their initiative and creativity.

It’s well past time to find middle ground we can all agree to and get America back to work. The world economy is not on hold while the United States stalls in political gridlock.