Saturday, October 1, 2011

Observations from the Edge 10.1

After being warned by Ash not to 'get maced and bring back the smell' I wandered over to Zuccotti Park to see what was going on and and take some photos. Ash was referring to the unprovoked macing of four protesters by a senior NYPD commander. It was a move that made it look as if New York's Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly is a closet supporter of the protests because they seemed to be heading nowhere and getting no national media attention until that incident. It now seems that shouting and annoying bankers is grounds enough for getting maced.

People were beating drums, blowing whistles, carrying signs, and chanting “Banks got bailed out, you got sold out!” and “We are the 99 percent!” Many of the protesters carried computers as they marched and I found out that this was for tweeting and live streaming what was going on. I heard no mention of plurking so I guess that's left to me.

At one point I listened to a never ending lecture by an unemployed professor looking type about how corporate CEOs and Wall Street chieftains had staged a silent coup in America. I also learned what a human microphone is, it's when one person shouts something and everybody else repeats it in unison. They use a human microphone because the protesters are forbidden from using amplified sound. After all one doesn't want to disturb the executives on the 20th floor does one.

Next week New York labor and community groups including The United Federation of Teachers plan on joining the protest and MoveOn.org will help promote it. "We're getting involved because the crisis was caused by the excesses of Wall Street and the consequences have fallen hardest on workers," a spokesman for Transport Workers Union Local 100 said. A solidarity march scheduled for Wednesday that is expected to start at City Hall and finish a few blocks south at Zuccotti Park. By the end of the week there could over two dozen 'solidarity occupations' across the country.

My two trips to the park have me thinking and I'm sure I'll stop back from time to time. I just won't tell Ash about it ahead of time.

Rage Against The Machine - Testify

Observations from the Edge

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Quote seen on a sign seen in Zuccotti Park


We Are The 99% from socially_awkwrd on Vimeo.

"On September 27th, 2011, we marched on the Financial District's Luxury Night Out, where couples wore outfits that cost more than we will ever make in a month and looked at cars that cost more than we will ever make in a year, afterward, they went back to one of their many houses that cost more than we will make in our lifetime."

OccupyWallStreet