I GET the Occupy Movement

6 February, 2012

Occupy fills The New Yorker, The Nation, and Common Dreams, stories of and by gentle angry people. I haven't read as much as I intended to. Am I afraid of what I will learn? afraid I won’t like the people I want to admire? Or that I will love them and be flooded with sorrow that I am not there? The police evictions came, inevitable as the cold weather, and the occupiers have stayed: in the news, in the streets of cities across the country. They have not needed a platform beyond “We are the 99%.” The public gets it. We will not let you look away, nor avoid our gaze.Here we are, here we are, here we are. We know that you know that we know that you know. The movements with more focused agendae swirl and soar: 350.org. Move to Amend. Their lines are clear: Save the planet. Corporations are not people. Good for them.
No high profile leaders have come out of Occupy so far--that I know of. But I’m not reading carefully. There are “General Assemblies” – big, rambling meetings – as close as Toledo. I realized I could actually go and didn't want to attend a long meeting mixed with people trying to plan, people just thinking out loud, people glad for a podium at last.
Saturday, I watched a video of a confrontation between D. C. occupiers and police clearing McPherson Square, which was full of tents. The occupier doing most of the talking wore a knit cap with teddy bear ears. The policeman had a helmet with a clear plastic visor and a big dark coat. “We need to clear the area,” he said. The occupier said, “We’re not going.” They did not yell; they talked.
The video shows the police moving in a line with clear plastic shields. The protestors chant – “Sit down! Sit down! Sit down!” then something I don’t understand, then “Shame! Shame ! Shame!” Then a woman screams, full-scale horror-movie scream, as she’s lifted by the waist. Then the video screen goes black.

Once I was a confrontive activist, smart, principled and, maybe for a few moments, effective. Now I spend time with college students, listening and (less usefully) telling them things I know.
Hold on to humanity, that’s what I know. Here’s an apple for you. Here’s a song. We need to care for each other, present ourselves as witnesses, avoid fruitless rhetoric, resist polarization. The police, economically and socially, are in the 99% along with us. In Chicago, we yelled to the police, "Join us! Join us!" It didn't work. Now, however, I'm here to tell you it CAN work.