morning at occupy wall street. this weekend

the morning paper:

 10ish. liberty plaza.  quiet.  sun's starting to hit the corners of the park, two blocks from ground zero.  it takes 'till ten 'cause it's surrounded by sky scrapers.  some people walk around.  others are stirring under tarps blankets sleeping bags.  a little line's forming at the kitchen for coffee and muffins.  people are bringing big stacks of the paper in.  occupiers pick them up to read with their coffee.  very peaceful.  i got a cup of coffee and hung out.


the kitchen:

 i had this delicious salad plate from the kitchen for sunday lunch!

 russell simmons sat next to me:

i was eating my delicious lunch when cecilia vega and an abc news crew turned up and started interviewing the guy who sat down next to me. it was russell simmons! he gave me a friendly nod.  since i follow glen friedman's blog i know he hipped russell to the occupation.  link

 after interviewing russell simmons, cecilia vega interviewed a well informed young activist who was conducting his own interviews for his school paper: 

 afterward, she turned to his mother "wow! what are you feeding him! he's the most articulate child i've ever spoken to!"  cecila vega told me the interviews would air tonight on world news with diane sawyer and will run again tomorrow on good morning america.

medics

periodic "street medic" trainings are held and there are huge quantities of first aid and emergency supplies at the medic station.  donations of all kinds were flowing into the park while i was there including food, clothing, electronics money and a dozen kegs of local micro brew!



donation:

all of a sudden, weirdly, i caught sight of geraldo rivera entering the park with an escort of 8(8!) policemen.  they, he or somebody  must have thought he was at risk, coming from fox news.  the "war correspondent" needs is own army to protect him from peaceful campers? since the protesters are not only peaceful but pretty much genial to all, this seemed quite odd. and for a serious reporter...? 
 i don't have a tv but i wish i could see what geraldo airs- if it shows him walking through the park with police protection it's probably a deliberate attempt to make the gentle quaker style protest seem threatening?

so what's it all about anyway?  there are as many different views down here as there are people.  but for most it has something to do with this- in our times, working people and those who want to work, the middle class and the poor, are very quickly loosing wealth and power to those who have more.  the middle class is shrinking. unemployment is growing.  while the rich pay lower taxes and are richer than they've been in a century.  income disparity between the top 1% of americans and the rest of us is at its highest level in almost a hundred years.

the occupants (occupiers?) don't, as a whole, expect a revolution; and they aren't, as a whole, communist hippies. (let's face it, hippie communism is soooo 20th century... all the cool kids now days are anarchists!) actually, there are all kinds of people occupying, even active duty military. many/most of them would just be happy to be back in a recent past america where they could go to college, get a job, work and thrive.

as an aside, i think some of us who are drawn to this event would like to refute the dogma that lower taxes for the rich lead to job creation. the rich have paid lower taxes for over 10 years and the unemployment rate has only gone up.  i just mention it because that kept coming up in conversations with conservatives who were passing.  it's cool that some of them stopped to talk.

update boston.  purely by accident the first thing i saw when i got in to the north end was a half dozen paddy wagons with blue lights flashing and a little group of protesters being interviewed by a camera crew. they were stragglers from a large march that was headed toward the common after passing over the charlestown bridge.  it gave me a little thrill to see how the spirit of peaceful dissent has spread.  here in the cradle of the american revolution and the region of the shot heard round the world. something's definitely happening.

 

update-this morning i'm reading that boston police- in the middle of the night- swarmed the protest on the common and beat and dragged away protesters, including military veterans.
more additions to this post later.