I am too far and too unemployed to participate in the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. All I can do is lend my support with reorganized electrons. Mornings and evenings, I'm milking a couple of goats and think "What if I could be providing fresh milk in NYC, right now?" I feel so helpless.
But this morning, a local story blurb caught my eye: Portland OR. (There's a video & it comes with a commercial, sigh. I hate my slow DSL.) It's very short and doesn't have any real, direct connection to Occupy Wall Street, yet- it did in my brain.
I'm wondering, is Occupy Wall Street having a subconscious effect on our country?
(Follow my thinking past the elegant E's that need a room)
It was not the action of the bus driver, although questionable, might wind up being excused. Certainly, a distraction of a baby with lungs of kevlar and a volume past 11 is a problem. A safety problem. There are places in Portland, though, I would not consider wise to leave a mother and infant. Not so much safety as a dead zone for transport. It's cool and rainy in the Pacific Northwest, depending on where you are it can be a long walk or an hour's wait for the next ride. I'll let Trimet sort out whether their employee did right or not, although, by the sounds of the story, they're going to be wearing some egg on their face.
Far more interesting is that one person spoke up. For saying "This is not right", they were also kicked off the bus. Even more astonishing to me (with some familiarity of the character of most people on public transportation in Portland), was that MORE people protested! Now, it has been some time since I was a regular user there, but I remember, you pretty much kept to yourself. I visit my mother in Beaverton, using the MAX lightrail to go into downtown Portland. I'm usually looking at the riders, willing to engage in conversation with anyone, but I almost never get more than the briefest eye contact. That a number of people, the whole bus load according to the story, stand up and protest is a shock. What pushed people to act now?
I'm sure if you asked these people, why? they would not say anything of Occupy Wall Street. They'll speak of supporting a young mother with a child doing the best she can. Or the unfairness. Or how they put up with overzealous drivers. Yet, how many of us have been hearing, finally, of a protest in New York City? A protest against the big money interests so many of us are justifiably furious with? A call to our sluggard government to take faster and more bold action against the corruption? It whispers by out ears in soundbites, trickles in our eyes in little snippets. For a moment, many thing "Right on!" and/or "If only I could too!" before the other needs of our day intrude. But it all goes in, lingering in our subconscious. Until, perhaps, there's a moment of injustice before us.
A crying child, an irritated public bus driver and an ill-thought reaction to the distraction- does this lead to a moment of solidarity for us? Not consciously, I'm sure. But I hope it is in the subconscious, so in that moment of injustice before us, it tips us to speak up. Moves us to act. Are there more incidents occurring now? It would be interesting to know, if they are being reported. Just little things, on the local level. Are people feeling a little bolder? Ready to speak out, act in protest, just a little bit? Because for the longest time, a decade or so, I haven't felt safe to do so. I've felt alone. A minority seeing a slow spiraling crash of our country. Afraid to speak up on large things and afraid to speak up on small things right in front of me. Because I didn't think anyone would stand with me.
Perhaps there is no real connection for the people in the incident. But in my head there was one. Because of Occupy Wall Street, I am more likely to speak up. More likely to act. Where ever I go, I am more likely to fight the injustice I see, because I can't be there. But I can be here.
Maybe on a bus.