"America Loves You!" one guy shouted from his rolled down window.
"Its not the corporations that are the problem, its the Federal Reserve, we need to get rid of it" shouted another, and until the traffic light turned green he continued to engage the group of us on the sidewalk in front of this Bank of America location at one of Santa Fe's busiest intersections.
My wife and I joined in at 1:30pm after the long uphill bike ride from where we live, and by the time we left at around 4:30 we waved and smiled at hundreds of cars and numerous pedestrians as they passed by on this cool but brilliant Santa Fe day.
Many of the people in cars waved and honked and seemed happy to see us there, some even rolling down their window and telling us so. One was so enthusiastic in his acknowledgment I had to laugh: "America loves you for this!"
Of course some drivers avoided eye contact, perhaps because street both directions at the intersection was four lanes, and not paying a attention could be dangerous. Happily, there were no accidents while we were there.
Other passersby were obviously not that impressed with what we were doing. One fellow participant quipped 'you might as well give up on the Porche owners...'
Don't want to be guilty of racial profiling, but guess its okay to note the following since I am an over 60 white guy myself. I laughed out loud when a guy driving a pickup pulling a horse trailer, my age or a little older, kept his eyes straight ahead as he sat with his diesel rumbling, waiting for the light to change. As he drove away he shook his head an emphatic 'no' and gave us a big thumbs down.
One woman said through her open window that she had chopped up her Bank of American credit card. Another got out and took pictures of the participants with her Ipad, and then gave a speech about how her home loan had continued to climb and that with an increase in insurance costs she was not going to be able to keep paying.
The head shakers in traffic were far outnumbered by those of all ages who waved, smiled, honked their horn, gave upraised fists and peace signs. It really was quite fun to feel acknowledged and an appreciated part of the community this day. The fun feeling came and went as I thought of all the folks who will soon lose their unemployment benefits and so many others who have lost their jobs or will lose there jobs soon.
The ages of the participants (hard to get an accurate count because people came and went as needed) ranged from pre-school to over 75.
Several participants were overheard talking about the action next Saturday at the Round House, which is what the state capitol building is called. One woman in a vehicle shouted out her window that we should all come to the Roundhouse next weekend because it would be great and "they are going to have a BAND!"
Several police cars during our time there passed but one got caught at the light. My wife and I caught his eye and we smiled and waved enthusiastically. She turned her sign around to the back side which said join us. He then smiled and bumped attention buzzer and the participants all roared enthusiastically as he wheeled away!
A friendly participant next to us had shouted what sounded like "Racists for police, raises for police." We looked over at him and he said by way of explanation that last week in LA people had been shouting "RAISES to Police." Oh, that's what he was saying... We really had misunderstood that one.
He went on to talk of his experience of one of the biggest costumers of his film company jumping out of its contract and him not being able to find further work, and the irony of having to move in with his mother in Florida for a while.
I told him about my 60 year old brother who had lost his good factory job after NAFTA, floundered with temp jobs for several years and now been unemployed for a year and his unemployment insurance about to run out.
One pedestrian stopped to read our signs. Mine said
Wall Street
War Profiteers
or Jobs
The pedestrian said he totally got it, that as far back as WWII the war profiteers has been gouging us, and went on to give us a history lesson of US borrowing money from Great Britain......
We talked about the sad fact that so many millions were out of work today.
One driver had a big handmade cardboard sign taped to the side back window of his suv:
Thanks Obama
Hoovervilles Next
A female participant began to share a series of one liners with him: "your mother will have to move in with you because if she has retirement, they are steeling it from her" and so on. She was very good and non confrontational in her tone. Could not hear whether or not he was was responding.
Another car full rolled down its window and a guy said " One thing, don't vote Republican, they are ..."[garbled]. Man, would venture to say that most of us there today could have filled in that blank for him with all sorts of words and phrases.
Overheard one participant saying that the great thing about this action was that it was non-political. Maybe for him, but it is for me. I am of the school of thought that says life itself is a political act. My wife thought that he probably meant that this was non-partisan.
An elderly woman with a clipboard who must also believe that political participation is important was going around to each participant asking the question : "Are you registered to vote where you live?"
Who will all these people with signs vote for in the next election? Who will all the many people we saw pass by with Obama 2008 bumper stickers vote for in the next election? Will our fellow participants, young or old, vote at all in 2012? The only one I can answer for is myself-- yes, I will vote.
One sign clearly indicated a disgust with both parties: Red or Blue Will Both Screw You. That thought has certainly popped into my mind numerous times a month over the last several years. Did not see any signs which used the name of either major Party.
What are we to do, we kossacks who still want to see the Democratic party succeed?
Interesting to see what Santa Feans drive. We saw a three wheeled electric car, and a three wheeled electric bicycle riding in the busy traffic with a guy so elderly looking to me I was very impressed at his courage.
The cars kept streaming by as a guy commented on the two women that could be seen at around 4pm setting up a tarp and table in the vacant greenbelt alongside the arroyo across the street from the BOA, saying that some must be going to spend the night. The action was advertised to last from 10 to 5, but who knows?
As we peddled away on our bikes in order to be able to get home before it got dark, we noticed that the women had put out a smorgasbord of food and drinks.
One participant brought this beautiful drum, and he was so excellent that people began to dance and sway with their signs. The cool breeze, the sunny afternoon,the snow on the mountains in the distance, and fun rally all combined to make for one of those days that are about as good as it gets.
All in all it was another wonderful day for exercising our right to freedom of speech, here in this historic western mountain town that just celebrated its 400 anniversary.... the town they call "The City Different." Namaste.
###
Occupy Santa Fe
Occupy Santa Fe on Facebook
More Occupy Santa Fe with MoveOn October 15 at the State Capitol
Occupy Together
Sun Oct 09, 2011 at 8:57 AM PT: The Santa Fe New Mexican also published a story on this
Santa Fe residents find solidarity in 'Wall Street' demonstrations
Tom Sharpe | The New Mexican
Posted: Saturday, October 08, 2011 - 10/9
http://civic.moveon.org/...