Despite the blogosphere's inclination to blast the pepper spray and baton videos as far and wide as they can possibly be streamed, Wednesday's solidarity march on Wall Street was, in actuality, the latest display of this movement's unique ability to bring together people from every single walk of life imaginable.
Any fair photo set from the day's events will demonstrate a truly American hybrid of ages, cultures, creeds and contingents, a rousing, unified antibody politic ready to do the heavy lifting of the ideologically inspired, the working, and the middle and the low-income people of the United States.
As somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 people gathered, the whir of the motionless helicopters rendered inaudible above the synchronized cheers, chants and footsteps, the World (at least the portion of it connected to high-speed Internet) watched, commented and congratulated. The emerging attention is well-deserved for the spirit of this protest is the exact endgame we are promised when we enter this place: Jubilation. Unity. Respect. And, God forbid, Happiness.
At one moment, in fact, I caught myself having so much fun that I wondered if I was doing something wrong, if this thing could be for real if it wasn't bringing me pain or rooted in the anger it is portrayed as embodying. It wasn't childish rebel fun I was having at the expense of a policeman or a rich trader in a suit looking down from a 40th story window, it was legitimate exasperation, a giddy, sudden and renewed belief in the power of the people to affect change. I caught myself, I looked around, and I realized I was not alone in my enthusiasm and that my curiosity for what and who I would see 50 yards ahead was the common feeling. We were marching forward, together, for life, liberty and the outside, one percent, fleeting chance...of justice for all.
So I made another video.