I made another attempt to check out the new Occupy movement that has sprung up all over the country that is actively challenging the status quo. All of the various Occupy movements all over the world attempted to havea global day of resistance. In New York, this led to arrests asthe protesters converged on Times Square. In Rome it was far worse—the protests turned violent.
The Occupy DC movement was pretty placid, peaceful, and drama-free compared to other cities. Maybe it was the fact that this weekend was also the formal dedication of the new Martin Luther King Memorial contributed to the peacefulness of Occupy DC. In any case, here is an appriopriate sign I encountered at McPherson Square.
It had been a week since my last visit to Occupy DC and there were a few noticeable changes—including the addition of tents and canopies. They became necessary after a couple of days of really nasty storms went through the DC area. When I arrived, I saw people who became really excited when someone arrived bearing dry socks.
Here is the kitchen where free meals are served to the protest participants. I tended to prefer buying my meals from nearby places like Così and the Corner Bakery because I feel that those who are actually sleeping in the park should get the free meals.
There is a People's Library where people can exchange their old books for free used books. The People's Library has chairs set up next to it, which also serves as a lounge.
Someone has even set up a children's play area, which is pretty nice.
Unlike last week, there is now a table and chairs where people can make new signs. I ended up not making any signs this week because that table was a bit crowded.
A contingent of the Occupy DC group decided to head to the Mall to take park in a march led by the Rev. Al Sharpton commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King's famous March on Washington where he gave his classic "I Have a Dream" speech. I attempted to walk from McPherson Square to the Mall but I never made it because of my stamina issues stemming from my recent surgery. I walked down Vermont Avenue and managed to walk past the White House and Lafayette Square. But then I glanced down E Street at Freedom Plaza and I remembered another encampment from another group and I decided to check that one out.
As I previously wrote, there was an incident where protesters attempted to enter the National Air and Space Museum because it had an exhibit on drone planes and the demonstrators were protesting the drone strikes used in the Middle East. Some of the demonstrators were maced and arrested. It later turned out that this protest was not staged by Occupy DC. It was staged by a different group called Stop the Machine, who is similar to Occupy DC except they focus more on anti-war issues while Occupy DC is focused more on economic issues. (There are people who are affiliated with both groups.) To make matters even more confusing, one of the protesters who got maced by a guard was really a right-wing agent provacateur who had infiltrated the Stop the Machine group in an effort to discredit both that group and Occupy DC.
In any case, Stop the Machine had planned their action months ago and it coincided with the quick rise of Occupy DC. Stop the Machine originally had a permit to take over Freedom Plaza for the first weekend in October only but they decided to stay on longer even though the Park Police wanted them gone. Stop the Machine and the Park Police managed to come up with a compromise where the group can stay at Freedom Plaza for an extra four months.
When I arrived at Freedom Plaza, I noticed that all of their tents were crammed together on one side of Freedom Plaza eventhough it's a pretty big park. I don't know if it is Stop the Machine's doing or if the Park Police wanted them only on one crammed side. The tents are so crammed together that there is very little space between them.
These boots once belonged to soldiers who died on the battlefield somewhere in the Middle East over the last few years.
Here's a short video I also shot at the Stop the Machine site.
Having seen the encampments of both Occupy DC and Stop the Machine, I have to say that each area has its advantages and disadvantages. Occupy DC is in a location that has trees, which provides handy shade for those warm sunny days. Stop the Machine is in a treeless location and the sun can get really fierce when it shines on the concrete of Freedom Plaza.
The tents of Occupy DC are more spreaded out while the tents of Stop the Machine are more crammed together. There are restaurants near both locations but the aren't as many affordable places (such as Così) near Stop the Machine's location as in Occupy DC's location.
Stop the Machine have porta potties near the tents which is convenient in case you have to go in the middle of the night. Occupy DC doesn't have any porta potties at all, which means that people have to sneack into either Così, Starbucks, Potbelly's, or the Corner Bakery for bathroom breaks. During business hours, it's not so bad. The people at the restaurants are okay with the protesters using their restrooms as long as they purchase something from them. (I tend to purchase a soda and/or a cookie whenever I needed to go.) However, I don't know what an Occupy DC person does if he/she needs to go in the middle of the night. It's not always feasible to simply hold it in until the morning. Does the person wear disposable adult diapers for those times? Does the person sneak into an alley and urinate/defecate illegally? The mind wobbles at this, especially since I have never spent the night at the Occupy DC site and I won't be able to do so anytime in the near future until I fully heal from my recent hip surgery.
After I checked out Freedom Plaza, I decided to head back to Organize DC. Rather than make the long walk back, I decided to take the Metro from Federal Triangle to McPherson Square. When I arrived, I saw that there was a teach-in on the Montgomery Bus Boycott that was led by a young man. I looked over at the people who gathered around the young man until I saw someone that made me do a double take. Among the onlookers was the Rev. Jesse Jackson. He was just standing there keeping a low profile while watching the teach-in. I pulled my smartphone out and took a couple of discreet photos of him and shot a short video clip. Plenty of other people who recognized him also took their own discreet photos with their cell phones, portable cameras, etc. (I didn't see anyone get in his personal space or exhibit any kind of rude celebrity paparazzi behavior towards him.) I was still exhausted from my walk from McPherson Square to Freedom Plaza so I sat down in my portable chair while giving other people a chance to take their own discreet photos of Jesse Jackson. Once the teach-in ended, Jesse Jackson quickly left McPherson Square. I figured that he was in town for the MLK Memorial dedication and he probably had other things on his schedule related to the MLK events so he probably didn't have much time to spend with the Occupy DC protesters.
I also managed to shoot this short video that includes Jesse Jackson sitting in on the teach-in.
After Jesse Jackson left, I ran into someone I knew. He used to work with my husband at NASA but he now works for a private corporation. He arrived at Occupy DC with his wife and daughter because his daughter wanted to check it out along with her friends, who were also there. Ironically my husband didn't come with me because he said he had other things he needed to do. So he missed out on both reconnecting with an old friend and seeing Jesse Jackson in person. Oh well, it's his loss and he's going to have to deal with it.
I stayed long enough for the nightly General Assembly and I actually sat in on most of it. I was really impressed with how the meetings are run. Everyone was polite and they cooperated with the rules of the General Assembly.
Here is sunset at McPherson Square along with the arrival of the ducks. It's pretty strange that the ducks arrive at McPherson Square late in the day because there is no fountain or pool or other water source in the park. I have no idea why McPherson Square is attractive to ducks at all because it's all concrete and grass. During the General Assembly, I saw a near-miss collision when a duck was less than an inch away from accidentally landing on the head of a woman who was sitting on the ground in front of me. The duck diverted its course barely in time but not before barely clipping the woman's head with its body.