OWS – Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street has been going for just over a month now. I went in to NYC a couple of days in weeks 2 and 3, and talked to people, checked things out and took pictures.
Even though the protest is entering its second month, there is still a lot of misinformation out there. Some of it is clearly purposeful, while much is simply a lack of facts. Funny how many people are willing to express an opinion with only the flimsiest of actual information to back it up.
A couple of things surprised me: First, the group is amazingly organized for such a loose knit gathering. Schedules, teams, people working together, and people helping each other. That was great to see. I also hadn’t expected the range of people that I found. I expected younger people and students, but there are a lot of older people, and people with a wide variety of backgrounds. Some I spoke to were very knowledgable about specific areas of concern, such as banking and the finance industry, corporate influence on political campaigns and our government, monetary systems and the fed, and a host of other topics.
I certainly do not agree with everyone I saw or spoke with, but I can say that everyone was great to talk to and very reasonable. Almost all of the people I’ve heard or read bashing the protesters as deadbeats, hippies, dirtbags, socialists, communists, anti-capitalists, etc., have not actually ventured inside the park to speak at length with people, and worse, some have cherry picked individuals that represent (imo) the worst of the pack. No different from picking out a racist with a grammatically horrible sign at a Tea Party event. Does that represent all Tea Partiers? I don’t think so.
One of the points that is missed most often, and I think purposely so in many cases, is the idea of Occupy as a “liberal” event, sponsored, staged, and directed by some group out there. From what I saw that couldn’t be further from the truth. Although I agree that most attendees I met were on the left side of the spectrum, there is definitely not a “left-right” bent to the messages coming out. The primary messages are much bigger than left-right – they are concerned with a variety of fundamental problems currently driving our system.
The interesting, and disappointing, thing to me so far is that the outcomes the OWS protesters want would help the vast majority of Americans, regardless of political leanings. The overall result would be a greater voice for the individual people of this nation, and a better opportunity to achieve the “Amercan Dream.” Nearly everyone I spoke with is very much pro-capitalism, and pro-individual freedoms, yet somehow that seems to be lost on the majority. I’ve seen many of the “53%” responses, and it’s clear that a very high percentage of those posting actually support the argument of the 99% – they’re working more hours, more weeks, more jobs, and have less to show for it than they should. The perception of the 53% group is that the OWS protesters are whiners who want something for nothing. Some do I’m sure, but nearly all I spoke to just want to do good work, get paid what they’re worth and have a real say on how things are run. Pretty universal and not too much to ask for, really.