Occupy Wall Street

On Sunday October 9, 2011 I had the opportunity to visit the so called Liberty park encampment in New York City.  The occupation of Wall Street was underway.  No wait a minute I was several blocks away from Wall Street and the big banks and corporations that where being protested.

The protesters were gathered in a small concrete park just north of Ground Zero and across the street from Burger King.  Was I mistaken? This could not be the big protest that I had seen on TV, the protest that President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and big labor were endorsing?  There were only a couple of hundred people crowded into a small park.  Hand painted signs on old pieces of cardboard.  Where was the protest that I was looking for?

After talking with several people I had indeed found the great protest, the American Fall, the darling of big labor and the Democratic Party.  My amusement grew as I wandered amidst the trash and squalor that was everywhere.  Piles of garbage, rotting food, discarded clothes, bedding and just plain junk was everywhere you looked. People, lying on soiled bedding, in dirty clothes shouting and singing their slogans of protest.  At least most of those who were on the steps and the sidewalks surrounding the park were standing as they chanted their words of protests. 

When I asked two young men, who would not give me their names, what are you doing here? They looked and each other and said “we are part of the 99”.  Puzzled I asked again what where they doing there?  “Protesting the one”, they replied.  I was then told to be sure to go get some of the free food, and if I needed any medical stuff it was also free.  I continued to ask people why there were there most could not give me good reasons only slogans.

As a child of the sixties and the Vietnam War protests, that I had witnessed, this Occupy Wall Street did not measure up it was a very small protest at best. 

I took my pictures and continued on my way to other parts of New York City.  As I climbed the stairs from the subway up to Time Square I expected to see some protesters I was disappointed not a single protester in sight.  Penn station, Rockefeller plaza, and other major areas of New York were completely devoid of the great protest. Now to be fair I did see one small group of about 50 people protesting the treatment of Native Americans pounding on a drum as they walked down the sidewalk on Church Street.

As far as I could tell the media was correct in that this was a leaderless, grassroots movement.  As I pondered this leaderless movement the thought came to me as to how such an unorganized, leaderless protest could be so organized as to have the same protests, slogans and signs pop up all over the country? 

Maybe we should look at who is providing all the free stuff?  And who is coordinating the protests all over the country?  Perhaps then we can truly understand what this protest is about.

Just my two bits.

Chuck