About a half-dozen tents have been set up to house the occupiers, and the park has been turned into a small village.
Occupy Seattle Rally - Tent City in Westlake Park
Unfortunately, bank CEO’s don’t hang out in Westlake Park, especially on the weekends (perhaps an occupation of Medina would cause a little more anxiety amongst the ruling class?) … and as the homeless and working people of Seattle looked on, I wondered if this wasn’t more preaching to the choir.
I engaged a few sign-holders, shook their hands, and told them that I appreciated what they were doing — but I did gently express my trepidation about the means to achieve the end. I didn’t want to discourage them, I only wanted to provide a small amount of food for thought while I wished them well.
I guess you have to start somewhere, and camping out is still a specious catalyst for widespread change.
My greatest hope is that this will be the beginning of something far bigger and more effective.
Occupy Seattle Rally Sign
Occupy Seattle Rally - Tent City in Westlake Park
Occupy Seattle Rally - Tent City in Westlake Park
Occupy Seattle Rally - Tent City in Westlake Park
Woot dude, Thanks for showing up. On saturday for sure they did march around the blocks a few times, at one point in front of a bank right as a manager was closing up and coming out — she was super freaked out. ;-)
Though again, that manager isn’t part of the 1%, and they weren’t there to freak her out specifically, just to raise awareness and grow bigger. So that if the national level demands aren’t being met, there will be enough people backing them that they can make it happen anyways, and occupy whatever the heck they want.
Right now, everything is legal, the police are being somewhat cool to us. We’ve got a lawyer who is getting us a permit to stick around. And we’re building a little tent city.
The super awesome thing about this, that I haven’t seen at other protests is the general assembly where group representatives meet up and bring advice for things like “how do we make this effective?” “Should we move this somewhere else?” — “and if so, where?” — along with a million other things including logistics, etc is going on, it’s an awesome little community they’re building and I hope to see it grow.
One last thing, a lot of the people there were inspired by the facebook event, but not a lot have internet access. If you have criticism, don’t just bring it to individuals in the evening, bring it to assembly when it meets up during the day and be fucking heard — This can’t represent the 99% if they don’t participate.
A protest? Here I thought there was a new I-phone going on sale and they just wanted to be first in line.
If you think this is super awesome, check out the KOA. There are people camping everywhere.
wow. just wow. why not actually try to encourage change rather than nay-say it because you are lazy? if you diss it, you definitely don’t have to show up – is that your idea of making a stand?
i completely respect the author of this article’s point of view and i say yes! bring it to the general assembly. feed the group brain so that we can find the clearest channel to communicate to our fellow majority! we are the 99%!
This IS “super awesome”! A few “very smart” people are being lead around by their collective noses by Marxist socialists like George Soros and union thugs like Richard Trumka to rage against capitalism and corporations while claiming to represent 99% of the population. What a bunch of tools! Some of you wonder why corporations move their headquarters overseas. It is because corporations here are taxed at a higher rate than anywhere else on the planet. Your rage is being directed/orchestrated toward the wrong people by the wrong people. Corporate greed isn’t the problem. Government greed is the problem. The only thing I see being fed to the “group brain” is ME FIRST, GIMME GIMME. Just because you exist doesn’t mean someone else who earns a living owes you a lifestyle.
Corporations control the government, so saying government greed is the problem and not corporate greed is a bit naive.
I’ll bite. What corporations control Barack Obama? What corporations control Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, Barney Frank, Diane Feinstein, Chuck Rangle and Maxine Waters? If they are all corporate controlled, shouldn’t all of these protests be directed at those politicians?
Citing public records, and these are only naming a few.
Barack Obama’s top donors in the 2008 election cycle:
University of California $1,648,685
Goldman Sachs $1,013,091
Harvard University $864,654
Microsoft Corp $852,167
Google Inc $814,540
JPMorgan Chase & Co $808,799
Citigroup Inc $736,771
Time Warner $624,618
Sidley Austin LLP $600,298
Stanford University $595,716
National Amusements Inc $563,798
Wilmerhale Llp $550,168
Skadden, Arps et al $543,539
Columbia University $541,002
UBS AG $532,674
IBM Corp $532,372
General Electric $529,855
US Government $517,908
Morgan Stanley $512,232
Latham & Watkins $503,295
Harry Reid’s for his 2010 election:
MGM Mirage $180,400
Harrah’s Entertainment $111,950
Weitz & Luxenberg $88,800
Law Offices of Peter G Angelos $84,000
JPMorgan Chase & Co $82,100
Girardi & Keese $81,400
Simmons Cooper LLC $76,900
Station Casinos $76,200
Comcast Corp $74,900
AT&T Inc $73,250
Apollo Advisors $66,900 $66,900
Akin, Gump et al $61,750
Boyd Gaming $59,600
FMR Corp $59,200
Walt Disney Co $55,000
Blackstone Group $54,700
Paul, Weiss et al $54,700
Time Warner $51,750
WPP Group $50,900
UnitedHealth Group $50,000
National Cable & Telecommunications Assn $50,000
Sierra Nevada Corp $49,500
DLA Piper $49,400
Ford Motor Co $48,500
Barrick Gold Corp $46,000
Hewlett-Packard $45,600
Qualcomm Inc $44,200
Nancy Pelosi’s Top Contributors during the 2008 Election Cycle:
Amgen Inc $ 42,050
Akin, Gump et al $ 41,050
E&J Gallo Winery $ 18,400
Patton Boggs LLP $ 17,400
Torchmark Corp $ 17,000
JPMorgan Chase & Co $ 15,600
Bailey Perrin Bailey LLP $ 13,800
Childrens Research & Education Institute $ 13,800
Google Inc $ 12,300
ActBlue $ 12,150
I’ll stop here b/c by now the pattern is clear. Just follow the money. I’m not here to change your opinion or belief. I merely wanted to shed some light on the fact that it’s not as cut and dry as you made it sound in your previous comment. I agree that protests should not only be directed at corporations, and they should be just as angry at the government if not more, and at ourselves for letting it get this out of control. The government is supposed to work for us, and yet here we are working for it. We are paying our public servants to enslave us. They no longer look out for our best interest, rather they look out for their own to continue lining their pockets. Corporations and the government/politicians have gotten too powerful and rich, and in turn they continue to get more greedy and corrupt. We have to end this vicious cycle now and these protests are a good start. Hopefully they will inspire others to question the state of our nation and do something about it to make it a better place for all of us and our future here.
I do appreciate other opinions, so thanks for your food for thought as well.