Two Wednesdays ago, I decided to go to the Occupy Wall Street protest. I wasn't working and I wanted to show my support. (Turns out, if I had decided to show my support three days later I could easily have gotten arrested.)
I looked on their website to figure out what was happening that day, and found out that they were marching to the SEC at 3pm. So I biked over about 2:30. I got to see Russell Simmons come by and give a quick 5 minute talk and tell everyone to keep up the good work.
I remember Zuccotti Park from the days back when I used to live at 45 Wall Street. I had a temp job in the World Trade Center, and I used to walk through that park in the morning and evening. On the Wednesday I visited, they had a massive "media center" in the center of the park, and because it had been drizzling they had everything covered in blue plastic tarps.
Contrary to what the internet taught me about NYPD treatment of protesters, I saw no clashes. While I was there, the police made them take the tarp off for the inspection, and they didn't do anything inappropriate, and the protesters thanked them at the end.
The protesters have come up with an ingenious way of communicating. The speaker shouts "Mic check!" and everyone who can hear her shouts back "Mic check!" Then that person starts their speech, but only says one phrase at a time, and everyone else repeats it. For example, "The police officers just told me," and then everyone who can hear it repeats "the police officers just told me" as loud as they can. At first this seemed dumb. But there came a time when I was at the back of the crowd, and I couldn't hear the speaker, but I could hear the repeated shouting of the crowd.
I looked on their website to figure out what was happening that day, and found out that they were marching to the SEC at 3pm. So I biked over about 2:30. I got to see Russell Simmons come by and give a quick 5 minute talk and tell everyone to keep up the good work.
I remember Zuccotti Park from the days back when I used to live at 45 Wall Street. I had a temp job in the World Trade Center, and I used to walk through that park in the morning and evening. On the Wednesday I visited, they had a massive "media center" in the center of the park, and because it had been drizzling they had everything covered in blue plastic tarps.
Contrary to what the internet taught me about NYPD treatment of protesters, I saw no clashes. While I was there, the police made them take the tarp off for the inspection, and they didn't do anything inappropriate, and the protesters thanked them at the end.
The protesters have come up with an ingenious way of communicating. The speaker shouts "Mic check!" and everyone who can hear her shouts back "Mic check!" Then that person starts their speech, but only says one phrase at a time, and everyone else repeats it. For example, "The police officers just told me," and then everyone who can hear it repeats "the police officers just told me" as loud as they can. At first this seemed dumb. But there came a time when I was at the back of the crowd, and I couldn't hear the speaker, but I could hear the repeated shouting of the crowd.
About 3:30 we started to mobilize to march. There were five simple rules to follow: 1) stay together. 2) don't antagonize the cops 3) keep moving, and then there were a bunch about how to communicate Left Right turn around etc.
One phrase the speaker said stuck with me, because it was clearly not a phrase she invented herself. "Respect diversity of tactics," she said, "but consider how your actions may affect the whole group." She was clearly throwing a bone to someone, and when I got home and googled it I realized that of course it was the anarchists.
There is not a lot of agreement about how activism should occur in this country. And in order to keep activists from turning on each other (which happened at the WTO meeting in Seattle), the phrase "respect diversity of tactics" was coined as a way of keeping activists focused on who the common enemy is.
Anyway. We set off on our march. We shouted things like "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out" and "all day, all week, occupy wall street" and "Get up, get down, there's revolution in this town."
As I walked I tried to think of good chants. "1-2-3-4 what good is the SEC for?" didn't quite scan. "Hey Hey Bernanke, how many homes you foreclose today?" But Bernanke isn't exactly foreclosing homes in particular, his name is just the closest to rhyming with hey.
I used to find these marches incredibly awkward. It seemed so silly. But this one was great. It was easily the most fun I've ever had at a march. Usually I'm jealous of the reporters and photographers I see. They get to be there and experience it, without the awkwardness of having to walk around shouting and drawing attention to yourself. But today I was sad for them. I was sad for everyone who was staring at us in curiosity. I was even sadder for the people who were obviously sympathetic, the ones who smiled and nodded and gave a quick fist pump before ducking their heads and heading the other way.
Does this have something to do with me being older? Possibly. But I'm pretty sure that watching Hosni Mubarak and the Egyptian dictatorship collapse a few months ago has a lot to do with it.
It's funny how that happens: you can read all about the '60s protests, the amazing power of nonviolence and civil disobedience, you can read about King and Selma and Birmingham. But there's nothing quite like watching it happen in your own lifetime.
I was so proud to be there, even when it was awkward and messy and disorganized. I was proud when the front and back of the march were chanting different things; I was proud when our chants faded out because our voices needed a rest. All of the awkwardness and self-consciousness that I felt when I protested against Bush's inauguration or against the Iraq War, was completely gone.
Why am I sharing this?
As I was leaving the march, our daycare called and said that Elliot wasn't moving his left arm.
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