Hello John Barri and David Brown,
This is a kind of
FYI. Just to give you my impressions.
We live about two
hours from New York.
Friday – the day before yesterday – I took the train down to the city and made
my way down to Zuccotti
Park. (Don’t be deceived
by the way that trips off my tongue; I’d never heard of this tiny park before. I
just had to google it to get the name right.)
I had a long walk
through the financial district before I finally found the place. There was a
business-as-normal atmosphere until about two blocks from the park, where a
police presence – traffic barriers, mounted police, uniformed officers – began
to be obvious. There was nothing menacing about them, a least to me. Half the
cops seemed to be five foot high Hispanic women.
The park is tiny.
One square block. It was crammed with people. A cordon of police stood casually
around the perimeter. Not at the border of the park, but on the curb on the street
side of the sidewalk that surrounds it on four sides. Again there was no sense
of menace, and people were continually flowing in and out of the park. I heard
one cop tell a gawker that he was blocking the sidewalk. The sidewalks, one
each side of the park, were crammed with gawkers, readers of posters, takers of
photos and journalists checking their equipment; I assume that that particular
gawker was blocking the narrow open lane of the sidewalk.
There was one Big
Brother touch, though. The police had parked a truck with one of those accordion
lifts that are used by tree trimmers, power companies, bridge painters, etc.
And on the top of this extended accordion, overlooking the entire park, was a
little enclosed surveillance hut.
The occupation
resembled a crowded outdoor market, more than anything else. Chock-a-block: an
encampment of sleepy Goths; a table where an old New York lefty was making
large “I Support Occupy Wall Street” buttons on a small hand press machine (no
doubt left over from the heroic days, when a demonstration was really a
demonstration and women still had passion); a group of earnest young men in
plaid shirts with clever placards quoting Rosa Luxembourg and Thomas Jefferson;
an intense orderly little soviet let by a slight young woman wearing a bright
red Caribbean turban, which behaved as though it was controlling everything
although I found that hard to believe; a country rock band; a Danish television
crew (two young men, one with a mike and one with a light hand-held camera)
interviewing a man in a suit and tie, with a ginger moustache, who was from
North Dakota, and like myself and most of the other people who were walking
around rather than being just being stationed somewhere, were there both to
show their support and satisfy their curiosities.
There were
far fewer political jesters, outlandish costumes and painted faces, than the
media would lead one to expect – though, of course, what else would they zero
in on? (Danish Television excepted, of course.)
I didn’t
see any fundraising. There was a free
food table, with food donated by restaurants. When I passed by they were doling
out pizza slices. But I didn’t notice any kind of contribution plate. The guy
making the buttons was giving them away, although you had to promise to wear
them.
It was
great – but I had seen enough by the end of an hour. I had one or two exchanges
with people my own age, but I didn’t see any way I could “join in” for the
afternoon. I had heard that there was supposed to be a march by academics in
support of the occupation, but found out that it was scheduled for five
o’clock, by which time I’d be on my way back to the train.
So, here
are my thoughts after one sleepy warm hour mid-day last Friday.
1) Whatever
anger emanated from those in the park – and
it was very subtle if it existed – was the kind of anger that comes from
disappointment, not oppression. Violence was the last thing on anyone’s mind
there, including 99+% of the police. (If
the police had continued as they had in the first 48 hours, the anger would
have been much more volatile. It occurs
to me that the large percentage of female non-Caucasian police might not have
been accidental; the NYPD has to be credited with getting itself straightened
out about this. I wouldn’t be surprised if the PBA – the police union – had
weighed in on the side of benign containment rather than aggression.)
2) I think
this event will morph into something larger and more meaningful, but if it
does, more credit has to be given to the media than the demonstrators. They
were a great bunch, but would have remained inconsequential except for the
media attention.
3) It would
seem that some Tea Party types should be attracted to join in – after all, the
far left and the far right are on the same page when it comes to government
corruption by wealthy special interests. Unfortunately, having glommed onto
Rush Limbaugh while scanning my car radio dial yesterday, and seeing clips of
Fox News’ coverage, I think the Tea Party will be propagandized to shun the
Wall Street Occupation (just as, perhaps, I was propagandized to go in and
check it out).
4) It’s wonderful
that these people are doing this. They lack the energy that we used to bring to
demonstrations in the ‘60’s (or is that just an old codger carping), but at
least something is happening.
