Now that Russell Simmons is a steady presence at the Occupy Wall Street Protests in NYC, he would like to get another major celeb involved. (He’s been there 15 times!)
Since Kanye West, Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, Penn Badgely, Roseanne Barr and Tim Robbins have already shown their support at Zuccotti Park, the music mogul sets his sights on New Jersey’s finest – Bruce “Born In The U.S.A.” Springsteen.
“Well, every hip-hop guy is going to come down there sooner or later,“ he tells me this week during the Efva Attling U.S. launch in NYC. “We’ve got them covered. Bruce Springsteen would be good. He’s an American hero. It’s an American working thing. If he understood the issue, he would be there.”
Because the message is unclear, Russell explains what they’re trying to get across.
“I think that they have a very responsible request – that we put this country back on track,” he says. “They find it very difficult to digest that this country is run by corporations, and not by the people. The simple ideas that they have – a iot of them will tell you in a minute, if you take the money out of Washington, they’d go home. The money out of Washington, right?”
He continues, “The reason I don’t pay taxes, the reason they have this issue with prison industrial complex, the reason the jobs are offshore – I could go on and on. Any complaint – the reason unions are being dismantled, all because of corporate control of our politicians. What they’d like to do is take the money out of politician’s pockets that is given to them by corporations so they wouldn’t be whores and they would work for the people.”
Despite his fame and fortune, Russell feels a pull towards the protesters.
“I’ve been there 15 times,” he says. “It’s a good experience. I keep going back. I feel very connected to those kids. I feel that they’re very politically astute. They’re idealistic at the same time.”
Hm, what message does it send when celebrities support this cause?
“it says that we’re smart enough to know that those people need our support, and our celebrity is useful and we use it.”
Here’s my pic with Russell:
