Occupy DC
I'm posting this for the people who don't follow my twitter feed, or just want to see it all in one place. What you're seeing are my tweets from this weekend and last weekend when I went to McPherson Square to see what OccupyDC is all about. Following the tweets are my overall impressions from each visit. I've added the numbering on the tweets so I could put them in proper order for easy viewing. I haven't made the picture URLs into hyperlinks, but copy them and they should work.
LAST WEEKEND
1. Well, they outnumber the homeless people in the park... #occupydc twitpic.com/6u5ljk
2. Goals. A lot of them, apparently. #occupydc twitpic.com/6u5noc
3. Talking about changing name to "Occupy K Street". #occupydc
4. Guy in suit trying to start fight with the food distro people. #occupydc twitpic.com/6u5ra1
5. Not just kids #occupydc twitpic.com/6u5td3
6. Well, talking about building a coherent message. I can roll with that. #occupydc
7. This movement needs experienced organizers. #occupydc
8. The "leadership" twitpic.com/6u5zjl
9. Going back to McPherson square; currently at Franklin Park. #occupydc
10. Preparing to move. #occupydc twitpic.com/6u64ko
11. Marching down K street. #occupydc twitpic.com/6u66p9
12. More people? #occupydc twitpic.com/6u67k5
13. Mane_Squeeze AV Fernandez
by Hasufin
I am against the class war, in which those who do not make certain amount of $ per year are cast aside through the legal process #occupyDC
14. On the corner of K & 15th twitpic.com/6u6po6
15. Sign creation. twitpic.com/6u6q8i
16. Things need by #occupydc -please RT! twitpic.com/6u6r8b
17. This guy knows how to make a sign. #occupydc twitpic.com/6u6sy8
18. This will be a banner. twitpic.com/6u75ur
This past weekend, I stopped by at the OccupyDC protest.
Now, I'm not sure I can get behind them, because to me the Occupy*** protests don't seem to have clear goals or a path to those goals - like most protests, the plan appears to be:
Step 1: Protest
Step 2: ???????
Step 3: CHANGE
I am not terrifically sanguine about protests in America; it is my belief that since the 60s a range of societal and legal measures have been put in place to render them ineffective; I cannot recall any protest within my lifetime having a change on anything but a local scale.
But, I wanted to check them out. The media coverage has varied from nonexistant, to crappy, to clearly lying their asses off.
Here's what I found:
1) There weren't all that many people at OccupyDC.
I expected this. They started on a day which happened to be a sudden cold snap (I had been wearing shorts, T-shirt, and sandals on Friday; on Saturday I was in jeans, hiking boots, a long-sleeve shirt, and a medium-weight jacket. And I was cold.)
2) They looked like a collection of homeless people
Also expected, but seriously. However, I have never considered the logistics of long-term occupations like this. It's a bitch. However, it doesn't help the PR any.
3) There's a general commitment to being nonviolent.
Pretty much an easy one. I did see people doing their best to make sure things are kept civil, even when some people did come and try to start fights. (Yes, it did happen. No, it's not on the news. I can't say what if any affiliation they had, but there was a guy in a suit with some anger management issues). However...
4) The folks running OccupyDC do not have experience running protests.
Frankly, they kinda suck at it. I'm not sure where one would look for professional protest organizers, but they could certainly use some help.
Last, and most importantly...
5) There's a REASON they don't have a clear agenda right now.
See, the idea is "There are a lot of people who are angry about the system* right now. Let's get them all together and then reach a consensus on what we want to do." This means that right now there are no clear goals, and you're going to see some pretty crazy ones being proposed. This is expected, and doesn't mean much except they're trying to be inclusive. I'm not sure this is a good idea, nor if it will work out. But it's better than I had initially believed - there is a plan, of sorts, and an intent to make this work out in a useful and productive fashion. Mind, OccupyDC has had five days and not articulated a clear platform, and I'm cool with that. OccupyWallStreet is running on 18 days now and they haven't; I'm less cool with that. Bear in mind that each protest is being organized separately; they're not the same groups.
So, I'm left with the impression that they're not putzes. They are idealistic, and are not in my opinion always doing the right thing, but they're not morons. Personally, while I see why people would want to compare them with the Tea Party, it's not a comparison I personally care to make. I'd rather talk about what they are, rather than what they are not. That is, admittedly, nto easy since there's not yet a clear vision of what they are. I think this is a movement that remains in its nascent stages, and I want to see how it shapes up. Personally I think I could exert some very modest influence on the OccupyDC movement, but I don't know how much and I'm not sure I have any brilliant ideas to offer anyway.
* I'm using this term; it's being articulated in more detail elsewhere, so don't make judgments based on me assuming people are smart enough to understand the usage without going into excess detail.
1. Lot more people at #occupydc this weekend twitpic.com/6xu58v
2. snlg.ht/occupydcteachin #occupydc
3. #occupydc teach-in about $ in politics. twitpic.com/6xu7hc
4. Apparently while you can only give so much $$ to a candidate, but as much $$$ as you want to a PAC.
5. A LOT more people, organization. #occupydc is growing. twitpic.com/6xu9a3
6. Librarians at #occupydc twitpic.com/6xucjd
7. Preppimg to walk to Malcom X Park. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xudyw
8. Signs. Lots of them. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xuean
9. The occupation. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xufiw
10. This is what democracy looks like. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xufzm
11. Does it need a description. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xugtk
12. Can't fit the crowd in one picture. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xuipe
13. Welcome to #occupydc twitpic.com/6xukjs
14. Yeah, that was a wrong turn. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xul26
15. Not by a change in definition, I hope. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xum8z
16. On a segway?? #occupydc twitpic.com/6xunl2
17. Yep. On a segway. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xuo1h
18. "I MISPELT DIS SINE TOO GET FOX NEWS ON ARE SIDE" #occupydc
19. Can you tell who is the protestor? #occupydc twitpic.com/6xuvbm
20. Pausing at the Freemasons for organization. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xuwku
21. Police here. Just keeping pace right now. #occupydc
22. Crossed U street. No chants. #occupydc
23. At the drum circle. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xv9dg
24. I do believe the group got bigger. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xv9t1
25. Plenty of drumming. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xvaa6
26. This is a pretty awesome park. twitpic.com/6xvaq8
27. Leaving #occupydc. Seems to be going on strong.
Okay, so this is really the first time I've had any involvement in a mass protest. I had figured I'd swing by, take a few pictures note how the occupation had (or hadn't) changed since last weekend. I figured there'd be a lot more people - weather last weekend was really wretched, and bad weather keeps people from protests. This was a gorgeous weekend, and a 3-day weekend for most people, too. Of course, that kinda blunts the protest - what good is it to march down K street when nobody is there? And I note that the people I talked to all have day jobs. Which is good and keeps it real, but they will not be there on the weekends. How to balance a desire to Change the World with a need to pay the rent? Tough call.
Anyway, I figured I'd take some pictures and head home. Mika told me afterwards she knew better. She knows me.
I got there for the tail end of a "teach-in" about money in politics. Right when that was done, a march from McPherson Square to Malcom X Park was set up. So, I figured, okay, I'll get some shots of that... yeah, I felt silly. I'm taking pictures with my cell phone; there are people with pro-grade equipment. I walked with the march. I'm not one for chanting, but I did clap. I'm not entirely sure why, but the chants were stopped when we crossed U street, and started again when we got past New Hampshire. Maybe because we were walking through a residential neighborhood? Regardless of why, people followed that. While a cop car did show up, he just kept pace and actually cleared a busy intersection for us; whatever happened at the Air & Space museum yesterday, I have no complaints about police actions today.
I can't say that this is a truly organized movement yet. There are no answers here, just a lot of desire for change. I can respect that, though. Most movements are "This is what we want to do. Show up to support this." The Occupy movement is, as far as I can tell "Let's bring people together and reach a consensus." That is, it's truly grass-roots and bottom-up instead of top-down astroturfing. So, it's a bit disorganized; it's going to be.
There weren't all that many people; maybe a few hundred? Not HUGE. However, OccupyDC is jsut one of a very great many; impressively so, in fact. So, it counts more than it might otherwise. This is DC. A few hundred people protesting is a regular enough thing.
I don't feel like i'm PART of the movement; maybe that's just me. But I want to support it. I don't know it'll be successful, and there are no clear goals anyway, but I'm very hopeful. It is getting more focused, and articulating many concerns I've had for a long time. So, let's see what we can make of it.
This entry was originally posted at http://hasufin.dreamwidth.org/8798.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
LAST WEEKEND
1. Well, they outnumber the homeless people in the park... #occupydc twitpic.com/6u5ljk
2. Goals. A lot of them, apparently. #occupydc twitpic.com/6u5noc
3. Talking about changing name to "Occupy K Street". #occupydc
4. Guy in suit trying to start fight with the food distro people. #occupydc twitpic.com/6u5ra1
5. Not just kids #occupydc twitpic.com/6u5td3
6. Well, talking about building a coherent message. I can roll with that. #occupydc
7. This movement needs experienced organizers. #occupydc
8. The "leadership" twitpic.com/6u5zjl
9. Going back to McPherson square; currently at Franklin Park. #occupydc
10. Preparing to move. #occupydc twitpic.com/6u64ko
11. Marching down K street. #occupydc twitpic.com/6u66p9
12. More people? #occupydc twitpic.com/6u67k5
13. Mane_Squeeze AV Fernandez
by Hasufin
I am against the class war, in which those who do not make certain amount of $ per year are cast aside through the legal process #occupyDC
14. On the corner of K & 15th twitpic.com/6u6po6
15. Sign creation. twitpic.com/6u6q8i
16. Things need by #occupydc -please RT! twitpic.com/6u6r8b
17. This guy knows how to make a sign. #occupydc twitpic.com/6u6sy8
18. This will be a banner. twitpic.com/6u75ur
This past weekend, I stopped by at the OccupyDC protest.
Now, I'm not sure I can get behind them, because to me the Occupy*** protests don't seem to have clear goals or a path to those goals - like most protests, the plan appears to be:
Step 1: Protest
Step 2: ???????
Step 3: CHANGE
I am not terrifically sanguine about protests in America; it is my belief that since the 60s a range of societal and legal measures have been put in place to render them ineffective; I cannot recall any protest within my lifetime having a change on anything but a local scale.
But, I wanted to check them out. The media coverage has varied from nonexistant, to crappy, to clearly lying their asses off.
Here's what I found:
1) There weren't all that many people at OccupyDC.
I expected this. They started on a day which happened to be a sudden cold snap (I had been wearing shorts, T-shirt, and sandals on Friday; on Saturday I was in jeans, hiking boots, a long-sleeve shirt, and a medium-weight jacket. And I was cold.)
2) They looked like a collection of homeless people
Also expected, but seriously. However, I have never considered the logistics of long-term occupations like this. It's a bitch. However, it doesn't help the PR any.
3) There's a general commitment to being nonviolent.
Pretty much an easy one. I did see people doing their best to make sure things are kept civil, even when some people did come and try to start fights. (Yes, it did happen. No, it's not on the news. I can't say what if any affiliation they had, but there was a guy in a suit with some anger management issues). However...
4) The folks running OccupyDC do not have experience running protests.
Frankly, they kinda suck at it. I'm not sure where one would look for professional protest organizers, but they could certainly use some help.
Last, and most importantly...
5) There's a REASON they don't have a clear agenda right now.
See, the idea is "There are a lot of people who are angry about the system* right now. Let's get them all together and then reach a consensus on what we want to do." This means that right now there are no clear goals, and you're going to see some pretty crazy ones being proposed. This is expected, and doesn't mean much except they're trying to be inclusive. I'm not sure this is a good idea, nor if it will work out. But it's better than I had initially believed - there is a plan, of sorts, and an intent to make this work out in a useful and productive fashion. Mind, OccupyDC has had five days and not articulated a clear platform, and I'm cool with that. OccupyWallStreet is running on 18 days now and they haven't; I'm less cool with that. Bear in mind that each protest is being organized separately; they're not the same groups.
So, I'm left with the impression that they're not putzes. They are idealistic, and are not in my opinion always doing the right thing, but they're not morons. Personally, while I see why people would want to compare them with the Tea Party, it's not a comparison I personally care to make. I'd rather talk about what they are, rather than what they are not. That is, admittedly, nto easy since there's not yet a clear vision of what they are. I think this is a movement that remains in its nascent stages, and I want to see how it shapes up. Personally I think I could exert some very modest influence on the OccupyDC movement, but I don't know how much and I'm not sure I have any brilliant ideas to offer anyway.
* I'm using this term; it's being articulated in more detail elsewhere, so don't make judgments based on me assuming people are smart enough to understand the usage without going into excess detail.
1. Lot more people at #occupydc this weekend twitpic.com/6xu58v
2. snlg.ht/occupydcteachin #occupydc
3. #occupydc teach-in about $ in politics. twitpic.com/6xu7hc
4. Apparently while you can only give so much $$ to a candidate, but as much $$$ as you want to a PAC.
5. A LOT more people, organization. #occupydc is growing. twitpic.com/6xu9a3
6. Librarians at #occupydc twitpic.com/6xucjd
7. Preppimg to walk to Malcom X Park. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xudyw
8. Signs. Lots of them. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xuean
9. The occupation. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xufiw
10. This is what democracy looks like. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xufzm
11. Does it need a description. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xugtk
12. Can't fit the crowd in one picture. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xuipe
13. Welcome to #occupydc twitpic.com/6xukjs
14. Yeah, that was a wrong turn. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xul26
15. Not by a change in definition, I hope. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xum8z
16. On a segway?? #occupydc twitpic.com/6xunl2
17. Yep. On a segway. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xuo1h
18. "I MISPELT DIS SINE TOO GET FOX NEWS ON ARE SIDE" #occupydc
19. Can you tell who is the protestor? #occupydc twitpic.com/6xuvbm
20. Pausing at the Freemasons for organization. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xuwku
21. Police here. Just keeping pace right now. #occupydc
22. Crossed U street. No chants. #occupydc
23. At the drum circle. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xv9dg
24. I do believe the group got bigger. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xv9t1
25. Plenty of drumming. #occupydc twitpic.com/6xvaa6
26. This is a pretty awesome park. twitpic.com/6xvaq8
27. Leaving #occupydc. Seems to be going on strong.
Okay, so this is really the first time I've had any involvement in a mass protest. I had figured I'd swing by, take a few pictures note how the occupation had (or hadn't) changed since last weekend. I figured there'd be a lot more people - weather last weekend was really wretched, and bad weather keeps people from protests. This was a gorgeous weekend, and a 3-day weekend for most people, too. Of course, that kinda blunts the protest - what good is it to march down K street when nobody is there? And I note that the people I talked to all have day jobs. Which is good and keeps it real, but they will not be there on the weekends. How to balance a desire to Change the World with a need to pay the rent? Tough call.
Anyway, I figured I'd take some pictures and head home. Mika told me afterwards she knew better. She knows me.
I got there for the tail end of a "teach-in" about money in politics. Right when that was done, a march from McPherson Square to Malcom X Park was set up. So, I figured, okay, I'll get some shots of that... yeah, I felt silly. I'm taking pictures with my cell phone; there are people with pro-grade equipment. I walked with the march. I'm not one for chanting, but I did clap. I'm not entirely sure why, but the chants were stopped when we crossed U street, and started again when we got past New Hampshire. Maybe because we were walking through a residential neighborhood? Regardless of why, people followed that. While a cop car did show up, he just kept pace and actually cleared a busy intersection for us; whatever happened at the Air & Space museum yesterday, I have no complaints about police actions today.
I can't say that this is a truly organized movement yet. There are no answers here, just a lot of desire for change. I can respect that, though. Most movements are "This is what we want to do. Show up to support this." The Occupy movement is, as far as I can tell "Let's bring people together and reach a consensus." That is, it's truly grass-roots and bottom-up instead of top-down astroturfing. So, it's a bit disorganized; it's going to be.
There weren't all that many people; maybe a few hundred? Not HUGE. However, OccupyDC is jsut one of a very great many; impressively so, in fact. So, it counts more than it might otherwise. This is DC. A few hundred people protesting is a regular enough thing.
I don't feel like i'm PART of the movement; maybe that's just me. But I want to support it. I don't know it'll be successful, and there are no clear goals anyway, but I'm very hopeful. It is getting more focused, and articulating many concerns I've had for a long time. So, let's see what we can make of it.
This entry was originally posted at http://hasufin.dreamwidth.org/8798.html. Please comment there using OpenID.