I've been out of touch—moving, house hunting, steeling myself for a new job— and barely even catching the newspapers, let alone maintaining moment to moment awareness of what's going on in the world of Occupy. But I have read the daily here in Albuquerque two days straight and already the trend is clear: Cities are getting tired of "hosting" the Occupy encampments and have decided to try to get rid of them by maligning the Occupy camps for resembling the cities in which they grew.
Fantastic as it seems, the mayor of Oakland says Occupy Oakland has to go because there have been two murders in the area the protesters are staying. And in Portland, Ore. the mayor says Occupy Portland must be shut down because there have been two (nonfatal) drug overdoses among those handing around the protest. Well, goodness gracious golly gee I guess!
I can only assume that Oakland had seen no homicides prior to September 27. And that Portland, Ore. has had no other overdoses, nonfatal or otherwise, in years and years. But then these damned demonstrators set up shot and the next thing you know the good citizens of Oakland are killing each other and Portland goes all dope stupid.
The Chamber of Commerce lackeys who pose as civic leaders around this Great Nation of Ours need to bear in mind that Occupy is a
protest movement. It's not a Lion's Club Pancake Breakfast and it's not a Boy Scout Jamboree. These good citizens aren't squatting in their public spaces because they were invited by their cities. They are, in fact, where they are precisely because the WERE NOT invited to participate in the public sphere. Occupy Wall Street and its myriad expressions elsewhere in the world sprang full blown from shared resentment at systemic, endemic commercial-political incest.
Mayor? The 99% isn't a tea party it's a locomotive. Get on the train or get out of the way.
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