It was a dark and stormy night. Although it wasn't yet dark yet, and it never did quite rain. There was just a miserable drizzle, the kind someone elsewhere might curse, asking themselves why they continued to put up with such lousy weather; asking themselves why they had never moved to sunny California.
But we were already in California. Berkeley, California. Home of the Free Speech Movement, People's Park, and now #OccupyBerkeley.
Last night at 6:00 PM the third second General Assembly of #OccupyBerkeley met. We gathered in a apropos spot -- a semicircle at the corner of Center St. and Shattuck -- just outside the entrance to the Bank of America. (This is also the location of the encampment, which started on Saturday.) Some forty people came together in the drizzle to stand with #OccupyWallStreet, #OccupySanFrancisco, #OccupyOakland and hundreds of other sites around the country, planning for Saturday, October 15th and laying the foundation for a long occupation. That's me in the white rainhat on the right facing towards the facilitator in the red jacket.
Tomorrow there might be a gathering of seventy (the forecast is California sunny). By Thursday perhaps a hundred. By Saturday, well, 99% of the 100,000 people who live in Berkeley is a large number.
You can help. Every day this week at 6:00 PM the General Assembly will take place. If not in front of BoA, then in front of Chase on the diagonally opposite side of the intersection, or in Civic Center Park, just down Center Street two blocks. (Who knows if and when the police or Bank of America security will try to evict the occupiers.)
Committees are forming to do, well, the things committees do. Plans for publicity and Saturday events are being formulated. There is much ado about something. Berkeley is stirring again.
9:00 AM PT: Occupy San Francisco
9:00 AM PT: Occupy Oakland
9:01 AM PT: Occupy Berkeley