OccupyDCMayDayAndAngerEtc2012

 

Introduction/Definition/etc Body Conclusion Discussion Page History Page Statistics Page Views:  since creating on 20120504

 

Introduction/Definition/etc

 

So went back by OccupyDC.org on MayDay (May 1)

as I said I hoped to, but before most of the MayDay events

in Malcolm X / Meridian Park, as had other things to do

that day, and didn't check my calendar before opening

My Big Mouth and Inserting My Foot...

Hmm toes, tasty :-/)

 

 

A more reasoned and rational outrage is below,

hopefully...

 

 

Body

 

So people were talking with me before the event,

press were mingling, I talked with a local homeless man

and a channel 7 camera man, and suggested the camera

man give the $10k old camera (non HD) to the homeless

man because he needed a place to sleep, the camera

wasn't the latest technology, and could buy a car

with it...  They (camera guy) thought it was funny

not sure about the homeless man, I was looking

the other direction and had done more miles than

usual in mid day heat.

 

Police were doing their daily walk through, as I was

informed.  The homeless man had struck up a conversation

with me as police were standing across from him,

so maybe I shielded some questions or problems

he might have had, not sure.  I couldn't hear much of

what was said and I didn't sit down on the bench...

 

Nice enough guy, I didn't say I was interviewing him,

so won't go into exactly what he said nor quote him...

I did give him some suggestions, regarding homelessness,

disability and transit

and got some from him along the same lines...

 

Closing part of the thing was showing me a cartoon,

bunch of people in an unemployment line,

cap and gown, 2010 Grad, 2011 Grad, etc...

I thought people wouldn't qualify directly as students

to unemployment line, unless they had actually gotten

jobs in the meantime, or during school...

 

Disability requires a number of work quarters

to be eligible, I'm guessing unemployment does too..

 

But maybe that is what Occupy is all about,

economic times so bad that people have nothing

better to do than remind people not everyone

is happy, eating, voices heard, part of the political

machinery we call democracy, etc...

 

Same woman mumbling to talking to yelling to herself was

also back, and some others I recognized, more OccupyDC

related were busy doing the kitchen cleanup, and getting ready for

whatever MayDay events...

 

A Guy with a Guitar and Omega hat, seemed to be passing through,

but thought he was related to OccupyDC somehow, he

rambled off some historical information to my comments

about not understanding Occupy...

from problems with old original Marx and Communism

on to more modern Cornell West, and Tavis Smiley,

I recognized the names at least, but don't know much about,

I surmised Charlie Rose gets to do what he wants,

as he's got the Bloomberg connections

and I guess as much history as a reporter as anyone

but maybe the late Mike Wallace, and a very few others.

 

People milling around, I talked with a woman at the Occupy

Schedule board who later admitting a 1 Percenter

checking out what was going on, she had written for StreetSense,

one article but would not put it on her resume, her academic

publishing being more respectable (my words)...

I'll try finding her publication,  she couldn't quickly

on a cracked iPhone case, sometime around when

I was gone 2007-or 2008...

 

A group of OccupyDC people had gone on the other side

of the statue to prepare, or debrief (debrief? would seem to

be after an action, but what do I know?, nothing)

 

I stayed with the press, the real press,

with credentials, and behind the cameras,

said I didn't want to be photographed

(I now remember I also said on first visit

that the bike helmet thingie was not a camera,

most assume it is, so I sometimes have to tell

people it's a headlight, which it is)

other things are cameras, but I usually ask,

as the golden rule, later in MayDayMalcolmXPark

putting my hand in front of my face when it was a shooting gallery,

photographer/ press wise, signaling I didn't want it,

but I'm getting ahead of myself...

 

Where was I?  OccupyDC Protesters across

the statue in the circle they are Occupying,

and pre-event prep...  After cleanup kitchen

turns out it's a committee from the website

(messy and outdated as it is, financials end

back in October, some pages don't work,

and even financials are unreadable other text

scattered along the page,  pages won't save

for some reason, to get a snapshot in time

in case they later change or get improved...)

I did a little homework on OccupyDC between

Sunday impromptu visit and Tuesday MayDay

events...  And there was big rains or something,

weather wise recently...  IIRC...

 

Lots of yelling and protesty stuff,

the group went for press interviews, I'm not

recording any of it, the good stuff is probably

old news by now, days later, I'm kind of

wondering about the few people and press

scene, not been to many news conferences

much less in the park, and surrounding...

 

They went upstairs to a Coal organization

building and rumored to have thrown coal,

the guard at the building said I could not come

up with my mobility aid most assume a bike,

I didn't know where they were going, I thought

to show off the new office, but should have

guessed something like that, how could I...

 

I bought a StreetSense while they were marching

over to the K Street office, woman sneezing on

my just to be bought paper, I scanned her badge

and showed her how that worked, her first,

catching up a little on park and SS gossip,

what little there is in common after so many years away...

 

I'm really getting rather muck raking these days,

I'm tired and sick, and well, not reporting the most

concise and favorable stuff, making a nice polished

spin for people to enjoy, probably why I only

have 15 or so page views on the original

OnePercentOfficeAccess2012

and that was giving people the link

when I went back...

 

People got interviewed outside Starbucks,

the guy with the guitar in the background playing,

he'd done some teach ins, and was indeed involved

somehow in OccupyDC and would be wealth of information

when I'm ready to hear and learn it (read when not

as tired as usual).  He was also pleasant and

caring, and nice, even if my beliefs and experiences

are different from his, I'm not sure yet,

I'm not sure what my experiences are,

people ask about stuff,

 

I biked to the next event after hanging around

outside Starbucks and talking with a guy

who was old military, and later union

about electricity and sterile cows near high power

lines, and putting paperclips on poles seeing

how magnetized it was as proof of the strong forces

involved, talking of accepting and not accepting deliveries,

and getting fired for such, my mention of my uncle

having been hit by lightning more than once,

and later had cancer, I said died of it,

but not entirely correct, it was suicide at the end,

I try to block that part from my mind, and

conversations don't bring up all of everything

especially with strangers and informal conversations

frequent interruptions derailing my thoughts,

where I'd normally be asking them questions,

but they seem to want to know about me,

I'm more man/ woman on the street type stuff,

let the big reporters and news organizations

get the interviews, I'll see it later on the news,

but what's behind the scenes, how is it doing

kitchen duty?, how about the police who have

to check the park?  What about the neighbors?

Are they tired of the Occupy?  Or is it continual

amusement during their commutes and lunch hour?

 

Some say DC has been better than other cities,

for Occupy, I guess DC is used to protests and

vigils and laxer (sp?) laws than HayMarket in Chicago,

1889 or so IIRC where protesters/ union organizers

were killed along with some others, and that is how we

got our 8 hour work day, the hangings of other

organizers probably strikes a cord in many

current day people, Why is social change a

crime?  Why are people dying to make change

in a society?

 

Later conversations while waiting on the

Malcom X/ Meridian Park I biked up and talked

with some about the woman killed on a bike

on R Street Allison Swanson, to a guy from

Ohio, I asked if there was Coal in Ohio?,

not sure the Appalachian Mountains

extend that far west...  He's been with OccupyDC

for a few weeks to months, looks Pakistani,

family is from there, but he's US,

I gave him a little local bike history,

suggesting he get a bike and

get out more in the area while here,

turns out some took a bus, the newsletter

handed out, fresh from the press, AFAICT

back at OccupyDC, I did get a copy,

one of the first handed out, and need to sit down

and try reading it, much better than the website,

I'd suggest scanning / putting the PDF and archives

up on their site, more like a news organization,

than a street handout type thing, even StreetSense,

it's a continue struggle for me to get into DC

every 2 weeks and buy a couple copies each time,

Suburgatory demands and weather and stuff

taking much of my life, just eating and sleeping,

yes, I made it through the end of month,

someone donating 2 rolls of Toilet Paper,

as I whined about all the running around I do

his assumption is my life is easy and

I get to do whatever I want, whenever I want,

the grass is alway greener, attitude,

vs Work, Kids, responsibilities,

I must be trash or lucky to not be mainstream

society, it's not all that great, 95 degrees heat get

dangerous, and commuting time takes me forever,

compared to people who just jump in expensive

gas guzzling metal cages, and carbon footprint

all over our wonderful nature, or what's left of it,

kind of like Coal, that 4 letter word actually,

that helped build our nation, polluting

and giving black lung, and I remember

Friends of Coal in the Hospital we were

visiting in West Virginia with Patch's Geshundhiet

Institute, how ironic Friends of Coal were

donating artwork, dainty clean stuff,

when someone might be dying from coal related

stuff, I Guess In Hospital better than what

people tell me about cave ins and canaries,

and people just not coming back out of

mines...  Collapses common, and I mentioned

Flood City, Johnstown, PA where Autreat was

last year, thousands died, and Corps of Engineers

local t shirt was "Flood Proof My Ass" or similar...

 

 

And I thought homelessness and disability

and poverty were subculture, goth and

protesty stuff, like canonical Occupy

in DC and elsewhere...

 

But I digress, offered free red books at

a table at MayDay early, I'm later asking

the guy with the One Circled t shirt

how he gets away with

being a 1 in a crowd of 99%ers

("He's a 1, G'it Him!") people in the park laughing

at that, it's One Campaign, something

about splintering the party, or somesuch,

Far less funny than admitting being a 1

in an angry mob of 99er's...

 

It turns out so much Union stuff is involved

in Occupy, I'm starting to get scared, and

wonder if there is more connections and

fronting going on, but I'm always the cynic,

even among cynics.

 

The MayDay Pole was not allowed by police

looked like DC and Park Police told them

to take it down and not put it back up,

the music and amplifying stand/ stage

stayed, not sure what power they were

using, what permits were involved, or what

laws, but the website Protester's guide,

saying cops lie, and other stuff, a

How To, which I generally appreciate,

giving laws and how it applies and doesn't

something as a Boy Scout type goodie

two shoes, don't know much about

I generally try to treat people with respect,

even when they aren't to you

(OccupyDC was more civil

on my return than first visit, I am told

I have an anger problem/ second hand,

but reply now: Anger is Good, It Tells You Your

Rights Are Being Violated but wonder about

people who are continually angry and lack the emotional

range of full spectrum emotions and then there's the moral

outrage of the 1960's so many yungin's not even

around for that, the new generation has to find

their own place in time, NeoHippies, I'd call it,

more militant and outraged, than what little

I recall, tie dye t shirts are still around

I've seen them and made a couple,

but don't wear them much, myself a dashikie

(sp?) when a teenager, in suburbs

with long curly bright red hair wondering

why people thought I was weird...  Go Figure...

 

And Pink Floyd in High School,

You're Going To Go Crazy On That Stuff,

I'm told, Too Late Really, Oops,

guess it happened, sign of the times,

I guess...

 

I didn't stay at May Day

I sat across the park watching police

and pole not go up, suggested they do it

on the street when walking to White House,

as I had sat and ate lunch, missed it

by commuting in, getting

Hungry Angry Lonely and Tired

so did something about Hungry as thought ahead

to pack a little corn on the cob, and some cheap

day old bread I find locally, (organizers picking up something

sitting on a bench near me) or next towns over

half price day after, If I don't let it sit around

like most people in a fridge, and eat it same day or soon,

and freeze the sliced stuff, I get by,

more fears of being hungry, planning and spacing

stuff out, I was hungry and thirsty when there

last visit, but more mellow this time,

I guess my anger scared them, matching

or exceeding Bears, to show some support for him,

and rebel about the rebels,

almost Abbie Hoffman and Diggers like,

but that wouldn't go over well with anyone

who knows what that was...

 

And I'm not a good little Jewish boy either,

despite where I grew up or didn't

I'm really just an overgrown kid...

Which people don't really understand,

It's not a child's mind in an adult's body,

like most assume about Intellectual Disability people

and stigma and discrimination would dictate,

it's trying to find joy and fun and laughter

in everyday things, as depression robs me

and society of all of that, so why

not have some fun, other wise I'm dead,

and maybe soon enough, despite

Bike Month, and health stuff, one driver's

Right Hook too much or Banker Plows through Critical Mass

in South America or garbage truck runs over cute girl on way

to new job in DC, my time is limited

as much as I try being relaxed, cool headed and stuff,

I don't have kids at home, government job

and come down to Occupy to do

my Union politicing...

 

In my everyday life, I get an old military guy

with 3 Ph.D.s ranting at me as I try doing errands

about ObamaCare is stealing, quoting Constitution

Interest? is an Abomination

and He's going to Lose and then what are You

going to do?, anything I say is seen as in favor

of Obama, when I'm really Independent,

when political at all, just a pawn, a hungry

poor disabled one at that in the middle of a fight

I don't want to be in, seems more like

Forrest Gump and thinking on the Malcolm X Park

May Day stage and wondering who's going to pull

the amp plug If I Were to Say Anything,

which I generally don't, just accessible writing,

ranting and rambling almost Conspiracy Theory movie like,

so few web readers, I'm really just yelling

at myself, not that different than the

woman in the OccupyDC park...

 

But I digress...

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

Summary of experience or similar

 

Discussion

 

A place for feedback on the page presented

 

Page History

 

20120504 Jerry

• Jerry created this page to ...

 

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