You all probably know about that whole 'Occupy Wallstreet' movement that's been sweeping the nation, right? I've been hearing more and more about it lately, and I've decided that all of this media attention it was gathering merited some first hand experience on my part. I, like most people, have no clue what the hell this movement is really about. From what I can tell, it's a bunch of people that have been camping outside cities all across the nation because being broke sucks. While I can vouch for the being broke sucking thing, I'm not entirely sure what the whole camping craze is doing. People have been sleeping on the streets for two months to protest the greedy ways of the rich. I get that, I really do, and I even agree with it. The thing that I don't get is this, what is
occupying a public park for 8 weeks going to do about it? In the beginning the camping routine did wonders for capturing the spotlight, but now what? The movement has coverage from every major network and media source, but nothing is changing. There is no mission statement, there is no direction, there are no demands. All I see is a collective bunch of people (ranging from passionate demonstrators, to curious pedestrians, to hipsters and homeless people) that aren't entirely sure what the goal is, but feel secure being a member of an idea that's bigger than themselves. Progress isn't being made like it seemed in the beginning, because there's no structure or organization. The figure that doing what they did yesterday (make cardboard signs and chant at cars as they honk) will suffice. But hey, that's just one guy's unintelligent and very condensed opinion.
Sean and I made our way downtown to take part in the protest. We found the group of maybe 40 people laying around in Civic Center Park and assumed that they were the movement. As we approached the group, I saw people sleeping under blankets and sleeping bags and others mingling with one-another. About 10 of the protesters were actually protesting when we got there. Most of the signs said overly-idealist slogans like "Stop the war on workers" or "Yes we camp". Some of the sidewalk chalk illustrations were a bit more vulgar. Sean and I quickly grabbed scraps of cardboard and began drawing up our signs. I asked a passerby what I should write on my cardboard, and he said, "All for one, One for all", so I went with that. Sean went with the classic "99%" for his and we made our way to the sidewalk to voice our concerns and protest. We were greeted by fellow
99'ers. One lady told me that she had been camping out on the street since day 28, which was impressive and disturbing (sidenote- that lady had to have been the ugliest person I have ever seen in my entire life. Like, it looked like her face was sculpted from melted plastic by a mediocre artist. And her hair looked like dirty fast food straws. I guess beauty sleep is just another sacrifice for those brave protesters)
. We chanted and cheered for honks as the cars passed. I think that the supportive honk to middle finger ratio was about even by the end of the day. It was cold and most people didn't seem too thrilled that we were occupying the park so Sean and I eventually left. Even after my afternoon with the protesters, I still have no idea what the movement is really about.
You all probably know about that whole 'Occupy Wallstreet' movement that's been sweeping the nation, right? I've been hearing more and more about it lately, and I've decided that all of this media attention it was gathering merited some first hand experience on my part. I, like most people, have no clue what the hell this movement is really about. From what I can tell, it's a bunch of people that have been camping outside cities all across the nation because being broke sucks. While I can vouch for the being broke sucking thing, I'm not entirely sure what the whole camping craze is doing. People have been sleeping on the streets for two months to protest the greedy ways of the rich. I get that, I really do, and I even agree with it. The thing that I don't get is this, what is occupying a public park for 8 weeks going to do about it? In the beginning the camping routine did wonders for capturing the spotlight, but now what? The movement has coverage from every major network and media source, but nothing is changing. There is no mission statement, there is no direction, there are no demands. All I see is a collective bunch of people (ranging from passionate demonstrators, to curious pedestrians, to hipsters and homeless people) that aren't entirely sure what the goal is, but feel secure being a member of an idea that's bigger than themselves. Progress isn't being made like it seemed in the beginning, because there's no structure or organization. The figure that doing what they did yesterday (make cardboard signs and chant at cars as they honk) will suffice. But hey, that's just one guy's unintelligent and very condensed opinion.
Sean and I made our way downtown to take part in the protest. We found the group of maybe 40 people laying around in Civic Center Park and assumed that they were the movement. As we approached the group, I saw people sleeping under blankets and sleeping bags and others mingling with one-another. About 10 of the protesters were actually protesting when we got there. Most of the signs said overly-idealist slogans like "Stop the war on workers" or "Yes we camp". Some of the sidewalk chalk illustrations were a bit more vulgar. Sean and I quickly grabbed scraps of cardboard and began drawing up our signs. I asked a passerby what I should write on my cardboard, and he said, "All for one, One for all", so I went with that. Sean went with the classic "99%" for his and we made our way to the sidewalk to voice our concerns and protest. We were greeted by fellow 99'ers. One lady told me that she had been camping out on the street since day 28, which was impressive and disturbing (sidenote- that lady had to have been the ugliest person I have ever seen in my entire life. Like, it looked like her face was sculpted from melted plastic by a mediocre artist. And her hair looked like dirty fast food straws. I guess beauty sleep is just another sacrifice for those brave protesters). We chanted and cheered for honks as the cars passed. I think that the supportive honk to middle finger ratio was about even by the end of the day. It was cold and most people didn't seem too thrilled that we were occupying the park so Sean and I eventually left. Even after my afternoon with the protesters, I still have no idea what the movement is really about.
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