How can we attain justice from these big bankers, these moguls of money machinations? Yes, we can insult them -- I fondly recall how they were derided as "Moloch" in Allen Ginsberg's Howl that condemned the greed and alienation of capitalism:

What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?
… Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch!
… Moloch whose blood is running money!
… Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo!

Words aren't enough, though. We want retributive action. Have you seen the ecstatic footage in the recent film Rise of the Planet of the Apes that depicts savage, empowered simians exploding angrily through the glass skyscraper windows of an urban Financial District? It's a cathartic scene that expresses in primate physicality what many of us would like to do… Later, the great apes storm across the bridge, defeating police forces in a way that the 700 jailed New York activists must envy…



Okay, I'm digressing… back in the real world…

Insistent advice is now emanating from Occupy Wall Street that would obviously damage the banking culprits: DIVEST!

Daniel Mintz from MoveOn.org -- who emails me at least once a day -- is also urging me to "take money out of the banks that crashed our economy." His plan, our plan, the plan of the "99%" is this: let's take our dollars out of the vaults of big banks, especially Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, and CitiGroup -- the banks that consumer advice blogger "mole333" at culturekitchen.com categorizes as the worst-of-the-worst financial institutions.

mole333 convicts those four banks for the following reasons: 1) they have the worst customer service; 2) they have racist, predatory lending policies, for example, they charge blacks and Hispanics higher interest rates than whites; and 3) they took bailout money for themselves, but they hypocritically advocate cuts in serves to the poor and middle class.

Are you outraged yet? Take action -- we don't have to leave our coins in the big banks; we can withdraw our funds, and invest, instead, in smaller, responsible institutions. There are green banks where our cash can bloom in ways that enrich the world. There are small community banks and local credit unions that assist struggling and start-up business neighbors. There are state banks -- in North Dakota, for example -- and municipal "city banks" also might be rolling out the carpet soon; John Avalos, San Francisco mayoral candidate, has promised to create one if he is elected.

Many community and religious leaders in Oakland have already disinvested from Bank of America and Chase, and in Minneapolis there's a movement to get the public school district to remove its money from Wells Fargo.

Readers, do you wonder, where exactly, to put your own savings? Numerous ethical banking choices are posted at Move Your Money, and mole333 also offers substantial advice on his blog. There's a plethora of options advising places to stash our cash where we won't get our stomachs turned with nausea.

Where do I personally bank? Timely question… I'm currently looking for a new vault, because my funds are ensconced in one of the above-mentioned "evil four." I've hesitated, like other Occupy Wall Street sympathizers, I suppose, because I dread the transition work, re-setting up all the online services that my big bank provides. Plus I don't like to pay ATM fees, and I fear the "little banks" won't have many free outlets; this last concern has faded though, since my current big bank just announced it's going to charge $5 monthly to use their debit cards.

What should I do? I opened up my phone book's Yellow Pages where I found 23 credit unions (in my mid-sized city) with seven within walking distance. I'm not eligible for all of them because I'm not a policeman or a railway employee or a member of the Chinese "Lee" family, but I have found a perfect one -- just 1.32 miles away -- that is a co-operative, not-for-profit, with online and VISA services and 28,000 ATMs worldwide. Plus, its website says that it "truly cares about the people who do business with us" and they offer step-by-step advice on how to close other accounts, for an easy transition.

Is moving my money to a credit union a powerful action, or is transferring my meager amount just silly, piddling and ineffective? Because even if every disgruntled individual withdrew their life savings, the big bank troughs would still be burbling over with billions of dollars from government and corporate entities, wouldn't they?

Hey, listen -- apparently, via democracy, we can also re-locate governmental money. Sarah Ackerman, organizer at moveyourmoneyproject.org, outlined tactics to me via email:

Citizens can pressure their state legislature to introduce bills that would move state operating budgets out of the big banks, or they can urge representatives to begin pursuing a state public bank. Bills [proposing this] were introduced in Maryland and New Mexico this past year but unfortunately, both bills failed. There are many restrictions on moving large amounts of public money, where small banks are required to guarantee public deposits at 100%. This requirement has made the venture unprofitable for many small banks. A movement based on the Bank of North Dakota has emerged that would essentially… allow small community banks to accept larger deposits. Contact the Public Banking Institute if you're interested in more information.

So, first we take our private money out of the big banks, then we transfer all the public institutional billions into responsible pockets as well -- Let's do it!

On October 15, I attended the Occupy Oakland march and I was pleased to see that representatives of the above-mentioned Public Banking Institute were there, handing out brochures that had the headline" "How States Can Solve Their Budget Crises: Own A Bank." The brochures claimed that "state-owned banks are a win-win for everyone" and they buttressed this assertion with 12 detailed points. As I read through them, I remembered that Iceland -- which suffered a bank meltdown beginning in 2008 -- dealt with its financial crises by nationalizing all the banks. Many other European nations are currently nationalizing or are considering nationalizing their banks, and there are calls to do this in Canada as well.

But… I'm not thinking about that pencil-crunching, political process as I march through Oakland's downtown with 2,500 other occupistas. I'm thinking about primitive, poetic remedies. I'm thinking, again, about Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Howl.

I gaze up at the big banks looming imposingly around me, and I think about all the other marchers marching today, on Occupy Everywhere day, tens of thousands marching in 150 U.S. cities, and millions more marching around the world, especially in Madrid, Rome, Seoul, and Barcelona, all of us marching past skyscrapers of financial institutions that have fleeced the 99%. I am wishing we were all hyper-enhanced trans-monkeys who could scamper up the walls, crash through the glass, and go ape-shit in bank offices, ravaging files and furniture. After our decimation and conquest, we would throw confiscated greenbacks out the windows to flutter into the fingers of those waiting below, and together we would scrawl the jeremiad squall of Ginsberg on the walls:

… Moloch whose eyes are a thousand blind windows!
… Moloch whose love is endless oil…
… Moloch whose fate is a cloud of sexless hydrogen!
… Moloch who frightened me out of my natural ecstasy!
… Moloch whom I abandon!