The protest known as Occupy Wall Street has been called an anti-capitalist movement, a violent demonstration, and the opposite of the Tea Party, but no matter what you call it, the thousands of people marching and protesting in New York and around the world are exercising their First Amendment Rights for the right reasons.

The Occupy Wall Street movement started on September 17 in New York’s Zuccotti Park. Protests are now occurring in cities all over the country, including Chicago, as well as in cities around the world, including London, Madrid, and Tokyo.

The slogan of the movement, “We are the 99 percent,” is a reference to the fact that the richest one percent of Americans control 40 percent of the wealth. Many of the people participating in the protests feel the economic system has treated them unfairly. The unemployment rate, the growing gap between the rich and the poor, corporate greed, and debt from student loans are just a few of the concerns Occupiers have expressed.

Critics of the movement have called the protestors ungrateful and whiny, but they are only doing what people throughout history have done when they feel the current system has failed them. The protests are a sign things have gone too far.

 “My theory…is that people are willing to put up with a lot until it really affects their standard of living, so I think that applies to these people now,” Libby Reimann, social studies teacher, said. “We’re at 9 to 10 percent unemployment. People are frustrated, and that’s happened throughout history. It happened with the French revolution and with Prussia. Throughout history, when people get very frustrated and feel like they can’t feed their families, they take to the streets.”

The group has a surprising amount of support from both sides of the political spectrum, with 54 percent of Americans having a favorable view of the protests and only 23 percent having a negative impression, according to an October 13 survey by TIME.

Many Americans are wondering about the movement’s future –whether it will become a sort of political party or whether it will be around to impact the elections. Reimann has her doubts about the protests having a large impact.

“I think the problem that Occupy Wall Street has is that they have a very wide range of interests,” Reimann said. “Some are just looking at Wall Street, others have environmental concerns. Because it’s so diverse, their problems may not be taken as seriously.”

It is true the protestors have varied concerns. The movement may not even have a list of everything it wants yet, but that is not what is necessarily most important. What is important is that people who, until recently, haven’t had their voices heard are collaborating to figure out what the best solution to their problems could be. The movement’s decision-making body, the General Assembly, uses a sort of direct democracy, giving everyone what they wanted in the first place: an equally influential voice.

Occupy Wall Street is fairly small for now, but hopefully it will continue to solidify its demands so lawmakers will listen.