Occupy Evansville has grown from a meager following of about 30 to nearly 200 participating members (2,800 “likes” on Facebook).

They have been marching and continuously meeting at the Four Freedoms monument on Riverside Drive. Occupiers marched on Vectren, protesting the company’s rate hikes on Monday.

The Occupy movement as a whole has gained momentum worldwide. Protests are now popping up in Spain, Amsterdam, Rome, and other cities across the globe. Basically, people are sick of their voices being drowned out by the seas of money and the corrupting pools of greed swallowing government. Their numbers have grown exponentially over the past few weeks. They are now playing a major part in political talks.

Both Republicans and Democrats cannot ignore the gravity of the bodies behind it. Some have called them a “mob,” others have called them “dirty, lazy, good fer nuthin’ hippies,” whatever your view, you can’t deny the fact that they are standing for something. They are taking their beliefs and mobilizing.

They are not sitting on a couch or behind the comfort of a computer screen tweeting about how pissed they are. Recently, Occupy Wall Street released a working list of demands.

They are taking suggestions for edits, and plan to present the demands in D.C. A summary of these demands are as follows:

1.) The reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act.

2.)The investigation and prosecution of the Wall Street criminals of 2008 (you know, the ones who walked away with billions of our tax dollars without any kind of accountability… yeah, those guys).

3.) Reversal of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision (allowing unlimited and anonymous campaign contributions to Congressmen).

4.) Enactment of a fair taxation law.

5.) The limitation of the power of lobbyists in Congress

6.) The elimination of “personhood” status of corporations.

If these demands are not met, occupiers plan to block exits and entrances to the Capitol complex, essentially trapping congressmen in and bringing them to the negotiating table.

The problem is that all of these senators and representatives are supposed to vote in favor of their constituents, but have they been doing this? Hell no. Instead they have been maintaining the status quo and, in fact, passing legislation that hurts us and benefits the people who put money in their pockets (anyone want to guess who that might be?). In other words, our shares in the stock of America have been bought out.