I'm not always in top form (to say the least). Sometimes I mess up. Sometimes I blame other people, when I myself am to blame. Sometimes I'm slow thinking while others are quick on their feet to act-like KimOconnor who yesterday got kids who were jumping up & down from a private car as I just stared. Sometimes I see a problem, & instead of pitching in, I complain to myself about it.
Happened yesterday. Standing right at the base of the Chase banner with Davekro & Kim in the photo below.
Saw 15 bandanda'd self-appointed "vanguards" run up the street trying to pull the march in a different direction. I should've yelled out immediately to warn people. Others did so...in overwhelming numbers. I failed, but others picked up the slack & kept the group together. Me? I just rambled on to Kim or Dave about the history of these guys doing the same thing for years...over & over again...in the Bay Area. Never works, but they try...& of course the media loves it.
Happened again at the same location. Can of spray paint came out, whizzed briefly, & then the tagger was himself "tagged" & chased off by the loud disdain of the march. I stood there looking at the graffitti & felt pissed that it distracted focus from the dedication of the people peacefully sitting down to be arressted for blockading the bank. Distracted from the solidarity of the marchers with the blockaders. "Man, somebody should clean that fu$#ing mess up", I thought to myself. I "thought."
Meanwhile, others ran to get clean-up equipment.
Same thing happen below a couple blocks away. Same thing as has been happening all over Oakland today.
Seems like someone always has to have my back, or at least, too often. Kossacks know about that kind of thing. And I guess that's a major thing I like about the OWS as it rolls in Oakland. I mess up & someone has my back. Sometimes I even have someone else's back when they mess up.
Could be you mess up sometimes too. Not saying you do, but it is possible. That's okay. We live & we learn. We grow as we cover for each other's problems. As we learn how to. As individuals & as a movement. I guess we do it that way because we have to stay focused on what we're here for. Have to keep the light shining on the continuing theft of our future by the 1%.
That's just my own personal POV. Of course, I didn't invent it. In fact, it seems to be rather prevalent amongst folks at Occupy Oakland. I'm thinking it's prevalent in other places/spaces as well...and growing at unpredicted rates. So much so, that one day's apparently insurmountable problems disappear in a day or two, without even notice, as others step up to act, instead of direct. It is happening now on the plaza. Happens every day.
I don't have all of it down, not by a far shot. Sometimes I don't even know what I should be writing about when I want to write. That's okay too, someone always steps up to solve that problem as well.