Saturday, Aug 12, 2017 · 5:09:43 PM EST · ProseAndThorn
I originally published this post last fall, after a fascinating conversation with an extraordinarily brave woman, who fought the law and lost, who understands the energy of the movement, especially among her fellow Millennials.
She has a perspective that I think is worth listening to, especially after the angry back and forth that took place, Saturday morning, during a speech at Netroots Nation by Georgia Democrat and gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Evans.
It has to do with the choice of irreverence and anger, why it’s there and why perspective hinges on what you are most concerned about.
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Last Saturday, September 17, [2016,] was the fifth anniversary of the first day of Occupy Wall Street - two months of protest against economic inequality, based in a small plaza in Lower Manhattan known as Zuccotti Park. The movement spawned other Occupy protests from Seattle to Miami.
Self-described New York "Occupy die hard," Cecily McMillan, is the young woman who, after being violently assaulted by the New York Police Department during a peaceful, Occupy Wall Street six month anniversary event in 2012, unintentionally became the face of the movement when she went to trial for assaulting the cop who grabbed her breast and beat her until she bounced on the pavement, writhing in seizure.
After a short trial with a difficult judge, a jury convicted McMillan of the assault. But there was an outpouring of support, including from three-quarters of the jury itself, pleading for leniency, and instead of the two to seven years she could have gotten, the judge sentenced her to three months in jail and five years of probation. She is now a felon. Part of the terms of her probation is that she is not allowed to participate in any protest or civil action.
McMillan wrote a book about her ordeal that was just published, called, The Emancipation of Cecily McMillan: An American Memoir.
Cecily has ties to Atlanta, by virtue of her grandparents. She also lives here now. Her grandfather, Harlon Joye, is one of the founders of Radio Free Georgia (WRFG), a liberal, progressive and occasionally radical radio station on the left of the dial. Harlon is also an activist, and played no small part in Cecily finding herself. At a discussion with her about the book in an intown neighborhood, she told me she believes that the revolution starts in this great city. When I reminded her of the infamously disrespectful reception civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis got from Occupy Atlanta, as opposed to the relatively polite welcome she wrote about that was received by politicians who visited Zuccotti Park, she had an interesting explanation:
"[Occupy Wall Street was] better at exploiting the moment [than Atlanta]. They knew that the public would turn against them if they didn’t sit there and go [mock polite applause]. But they didn’t do anything with them, either. They were just better at understanding PR and marketing, because that’s New York.
"[In Atlanta,] I just think that they didn’t understand what the [consequence] for their actions was going to be. We had to rely on public support from the get-go. I don’t think that Occupy Atlanta had the same rush to shut it down, the same police force militancy, so we [in NYC] learned almost immediately that you were going to have to contend with the public, because without the public support, we – everyday we thought that we were going to get shut down - we had to play better with others, but we didn’t listen to those people [the politicians]. They just had a better sense of PR.
"That’s what I love about Atlanta. There’s not networking. There’s not PR. There’s not messaging or branding. People are real rough around the edges, and you earn credibility by what you do on the ground. It’s not by name-dropping, and it’s not about what you did up north. In fact, if you try to talk about what you did up north, even me with this book, you’re going to get iced out of everything.
"You are what you do, here. And even if they were defined negatively by what they did to John Lewis, their hearts were in the right place. And John Lewis’ heart was in the right place when he showed up. He didn’t show up to exploit them, either. That was a real human problem, a collective action problem that wasn’t solved well, but at least it was all real.
"[And he said, afterward, that he understood.] That’s huge! We never had anybody [ in New York] that said shit like that. They would have had their publicists on us. John Lewis is the real deal.
"That’s why Atlanta is going to be the birthplace of the movement we’re all waiting for. People here can say, ‘I don’t like you very much, but I respect you, and we’ll figure out a way we can respect each other.’ Up there, it’s all game playing.
"[In Atlanta,] everybody is in everybody’s shit. Everybody knows everybody’s shit. It’s all personal. It’s deeper inter-actional networks. That’s what Atlanta does so well. Every individual here is more implicitly political than the explicitly political activists I knew in New York. Any individual I meet here is more political than any Occupy activist that I knew."
I've always been up on Atlanta being the cradle of social justice and equality. I hope we can make it happen. It also gives us a lot to live up to for Netroots Nation 2017.
-PBG
I posted a more complete piece about my interview with Cecily McMillan on my main blog, Prose and Thorn. Please check it out!