#Insolidarity with #OccupyWallStreet, #OccupyTogether, and the countless other #Occupy movements across the world.
What do the powerless have left to do when the powerful have taken everything else away from them? Protest!
This from a planning meeting:
The schedule was for us meet at Market Square Park at 8:30am. I got there early and already Media and Police presence were apparent. Promptly at 8:30 the band started playing and soon thereafter legal and medical reps were identified while Mounted Police joined those Police on foot.
"We're organizing here in Market Square Park so that we can give a legal brief to all the participants. We've been in touch with HPD and we want to make sure this is a safe event, a non-violent event where people can express their opinions in a safe forum," said Dustin Phipps, one of the Occupy Houston organizers.
"We have come to a consensus that we want to end the corporate corruption of our democratic process," said Phipps in an interview with FOX 26 News. "Its goal is to establish a forum, a discussion. The people's voice in government has been drowned out by corporate money and we are inviting the community of Houston to come out and tell us what do you want."
Read more: http://www.myfoxhouston.com/...
At 9:00am we began marching to J.P. Morgan Chase Tower and stopped there for a while as workers in the building looked on and heard our chants. The Mounted officers worked as traffic control for us and vehicles at cross streets. We remained on the sidewalks as requested.
At 10:00am we headed to Hermann Square Plaza, right outside City Hall, and begin our occupation.
The event had a festival-like atmosphere, aided by mild temperatures and partly cloudy skies. The crowd was peaceful, but the chants came loud and furious.
“The people united will never be defeated,” the crowd yelled. Other messages: “They (corporations) got bailed out, we got sold out.” “Hey, hey, ho, ho, corporate greed has got to go.”
The placards they carried were equally provocative.
“Wake up, sheeple,” one sign read. “Land of fees, home of the slave,” read another. “People, not profit,” read yet another.
One by one, demonstrators took to the City Hall steps to address the crowd. None stated their full names.
“I was a teacher until two weeks ago,” said a protestor identified as Michael H.
“I was laid off. I am denied employment. I have no insurance because of corporate corruption of our wonderful democratic system. Occupy Houston!”
Neal, another speaker, was at no loss for words.
“I work hard every day,” he said. “I willingly pay my taxes. I vote in every election. What we want is a society where your work matters, where we don’t fight endless wars based on lies and where our politicians are not owned by corporate criminals.”
Read more: http://blog.chron.com/...
Another Houston Chronicle blogger writes:
Moments like this one are sacred moments in the civic and spiritual life in our country. They are moments when rather than polarizing behind party lines, we are challenged to see one another for what we are–human beings with real stories and real struggles and real dreams for our lives and families. They are moments of opportunity for asking and answering deep, hard questions about our collective life and our commonwealth. These are moments when, if we choose to rise up to meet them, invite us to do some soul-searching about our myths (like the pervasive but vague American Dream) and our realities (like the fact that poverty rates are higher now than they have ever been), and to make sure that we are the nation we want to be.
[...]
These protests are not anti-corporate. They are not pro-anarchy. They are a heartfelt cry for accountability from those who have the most to lose in the growing gap between the wealthy and the poor. They are voices raised up against faceless corporations that have been granted the rights of individual citizens, but are not held to account in the same ways. They are people who are demanding to know how long we will go on avoiding the hard questions–questions about human responsibility to one another, about how our faiths teach us we ought to live, about whether we are, yet, who we imagine ourselves to be. How long will we go on shouting slogans back and forth, instead of sitting down together in our shared humanity, and hearing one another’s stories, struggles and dreams?
Read more: http://blog.chron.com/...
Currently those who are occupying overnight are welcome to bring supplies for overnight but at this point tents are not allowed/not being planned on being used.
All and all, it was smooth sailing. We certainly got a fair shake from the media. The local ABC affiliate posted a nice video of their broadcast on their site and 79 photos.
See them: http://abclocal.go.com/...
The only thing discouraging are the reader comments posted at the Houston Chronicle that are full of ridicule and contempt. But this is par for the course from those who comment in that publication and only emphasizes that some people still don't get it.
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General Assembly video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/...
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