Last Saturday, November 5, was Guy Fawkes Day, which never had much meaning for me because I grew up in the United States. It was only very recently that I finally found out the true meaning behind the last lyric in John Lennon's song "Remember". ("Remember, remember, the fifth of November.")
This year Guy Fawkes Day was turned into an event for the Occupy movement all over the world. The idea was for people to move their money from giant multinational banks responsible for tanking the world economy in 2008 (and whose top executives have managed to hold on to their jobs, continue to earn their outrageous salaries and bonuses, and used the taxpayer-funded government bailout not to loan money to individuals and small business owners but to purchase other banks) to smaller credit unions and community banks.
Two protests that would feature people closing their accounts at the major banks were scheduled to leave McPherson Square (the current site of Occupy DC). One was scheduled to leave at 10 a.m. and another was scheduled to leave at 11:30 a.m. Due to the ever-erratic Metro system (which is getting unreliable between its weekend gap of 15-20 minutes between trains and its tendency to spend weekends and holidays shutting down various tracks for maintenance which adds to the time gap between trains), I missed the first group leaving McPherson Square. I waited for the 11:30 a.m. start time but a second march never materialized. In fact, it seemed like the bulk of that day was sort of a lazy day. I can't say for sure if the drama from the night before was a contributing factor or not.
The one thing about this trip was that I was able to bring a sign I had created from home. It's based on the video game Angry Birds, except the pigs in this instance also featured the logos of the various banks and Wall Street firms that received taxpayer-funded government bailouts in 2008 but are still doing the same activities that caused the financial meltdown in the first place and is a major reason why the economy has yet to fully recuperate.
I basically downloaded the Angry Birds characters and the corporate logos from the Internet, which I then printed out. I also created "The Angry 99%" headline in Photoshop before printing it out. I coated a layer of Modge Podge on top of the headline and graphics. Then I used Modge Podge to glue all the items on a piece of foamcore. Once the Modge Podge dried, I used acrylic paint to create the structures where the pigs resided, the sky, and the grass. Once tha paint dried, I switched back to Modge Podge to provide two layer coats to seal the whole thing.
I went through such effort on this sign because I was going to leave it at the site and I knew that it was going to be exposed to the elements and I wanted it to last as long as possible. I originally intended to bring it with me the previous weekend but I ended up now showing up because that was the weekend of the pre-Halloween winter-style storm that started with pouring rain on Saturday morning followed by rain mixed with high winds followed by rain mixed with snow and high winds. The following Sunday the tempersature suddenly plummented to the low 30's (which one tends to see more in December-February, not in late October) and my body hadn't fully adjusted to the sudden drop in temperature. (I was heartened when those in the media predicted that most of the Occupy movements in the Mid-Atlantic region were going to suddenly pack up their tents when the weather grew bad and those movements proved them wrong by sticking out the Noreaster that struck the region.)
My sign did manage to get some attention, especially from these kids who recognized the video game.
I also brought a couple of other items to the Occupy DC site. I learned through Twitter that the site was looking for shoes for the campers. I happened to have an extra pair of shoes that I was happy to get rid of. This was a pair of tennis shoes that I purchased just a couple of weeks before my hip surgery on September 8. I was warned that I should purchase shorts and shoes one or two sizes than usual because my legs were going to swell after the surgery. I found a pair of size 13 tennis shoes at K-Mart that I only paid $15 for.
The big shoes were very useful after the surgery when my feet grew bigger. After a month or so, I had graduated to outpatient physical therapy and the physical therapist noticed that the shoes fitted a bit loose on my feet. When I explained to her about my shoe situation, she said that I needed to wear my regular shoes because the compression would hasten my feet losing the excess swelling. So I had to put my oversized shoes aside permanently after wearing them for only one month. I didn't get around much outside in the first month after surgery so my shoes were still in very good condition and I felt comfortable in donating them to someone else who can really use them.
The other item I brought to the site was the game Twister that I had lying around the house for years. I remember winning that game at one of the regular Friday late afternoon get-togethers at one of my old jobs but I've since forgotten the details of how I won that game. (It might've been a contest drawing or something like that.) I kept it around because I thought that one day I may have children of my own and/or I would have nieces/nephews visit our home on a regular basis and Twister is a good game to entertain restless children. But I don't have any young children and the majority of my nieces/nephews live in the Phoenix area (I really didn't want to deal with the hassle of packing Twister in a suitcase). Since I now have a hip replacement, I really can't play Twister anymore because of the risk of crossing my knees (which is a definite no-no). When I learned via Twitter that the campers at the Occupy DC site were looking for fun things to do when they weren't protesting (like board games), I found an opportunity to get rid of one less thing that was cluttering my home. (I would say that I miss Twister except—truth be told—I haven't really played that game in so many years. I don't even remember playing that game past the 6th grade.)
So I was hauling my bag (with my Canon Digital Rebel camera, Droid 3 smartphone, and Flip video camera), my homemade protest sign, the shoes, and the Twister board game on the Metro while I was carrying my cane to help me walk. While I was on the Metro train, a man and his son took a look at what I was hauling and asked me if I was going to the protest on the Mall. I told him that I was headed to McPherson Square because I was going to where the Occupy DC was located and I said that it was near the Mall and the White House. The son asked about what was going on and the father began to explain to him about how people were protesting how the economy had become very unequal between the rich and poor along with why people were mad at the banks and Wall Street. It was excellent that I was witnessing a parent using an encounter with me as a teachable moment with his son.
A while later, after I made it to McPherson Square, I saw the father and son at the area checking out the tents and the signs. We waved at each other. (During my Metro trip, the father told me that he and his son wanted to kill some time before they were scheduled to arrive at the U.S. Capital a couple of hours later. It was cool that they decided to do so by visiting Occupy DC.)
At least I was able to relieve my overloaded arms by dropping off the game and the shoes, which were both received very enthusiastically at the Information tent where I donated them. When it became apparent that there wasn't going to be an 11:30 a.m. march against the banks, I left my sign among the other signs in McPherson Square. (At least my return trip on the Metro was easier with having only my bag and my walking cane.)
>Aside from the 10 a.m. march that left before I arrived, there wasn't much activity at McPherson Square. I wonder if an incident that happened the night before I arrived at Occupy DC had anything to do with it. Basically Occupy DC decided to launch a protest outside the Washington Convention Center where a conference sponsored by the notorious Koch Brothers were being held and the attendees included current Republican presidential candidates Herman Cain and Mitt Romney as well as the controversial anti-tax activist Grover Norquist. During the protest, a silver Lexus plowed into a group of protesters and drove away. The DC police caught up with the driver but they not only let him go (despite the numerous eyewitnesses, photos, and videos) but they even blamed the protesters! What was really surreal was that the police called a press conference about this incident but the police spokesman was 20 minutes late arriving to that conference so the Occupy DC activists took advantage by taking over the podium and giving their side of the story first.
I know people will wonder why I'm taking so many pictures of Occupy DC. It's mainly because I want to show the real truth about what it's like to be at Occupy DC. There has been so much misinformation spreaded by both right-wing extremists and the corporate media as to who is involved in the Occupy movement and what is that movement is really about. I've even had someone I used to know (but has since moved out of the DC area) post a link to a YouTube video that was made by a right-wing group that was shot at McPherson Square and it portrayed Occupy DC as being a bunch of young lazy college slackers who don't want to work or go to school nor do they know what this movement stands for or against. It's really frustrating because this person has never visited Occupy DC in person and, as far as I know, has never visited any of the other Occupy sites elsewhere in the U.S. I've actually visited Occupy DC in person and it was nothing like the YouTube video that this person swears is the absolute truth and I can't convince this person otherwise.
Maybe I can't convince that person but I hope I can convince others and the only way I can convince them is to shoot photos and videos every time I visit Occupy DC. Ever since I was a child, I've found that I can't get people to listen to me using just my voice or what I write alone. I've always had a hard time convincing various relatives, friends, teachers, classmates, etc. that I was either telling the truth about something or convincing them that I was right about something. I've had too many people underestimate me or choose not to believe me at all and disregard of what I say because of a variety of excuses: I was born with excess fluid in my head (which was drained while I was still an infant), I was not only born with excess fluid in my head but I also was born with a dislocated hip (which was also fixed as an infant and was intact until I had to have a hip replacement just a few years ago), I was too young to understand, I was considered too "retarded", I was too introverted, I grew up in Glen Burnie, I was born female, I was an only child, my mother was just a secretary, my father was just an auto-parts clerk, I attended a state university (University of Maryland, College Park) instead of a private college/Ivy League university, I only have a bachelor's degree and not an MBA or PhD., I didn't come from a wealthy family, I don't live in a very wealthy neighborhood, I live in a townhouse and not in a McMansion, and I'm still in the 99%.
It seems like I can only get people to take me seriously if I have something visual to show them. It can be frustrating at times but it does have the side effect of fostering my love for photography. I hope that with the photos I've been taking of Occupy DC, I will convince you what it's really like. In these photos you'll see that there are people of all ages and races in Occupy DC. I also took photos of signs that will show you that these people are not rebels without a cause. By the way, for those skeptics who say that I used Photoshop, I admit that I did use Photoshop to edit the photos—things like lessening the brightness of the photos (I shot on a very sunny autumn day and the sun was hanging low in the sky most of that day), doing some minor cropping, and optimizing the graphics for posting on the Internet. I didn't use filters or do fancy editing tricks that faked what happened in McPherson Square. In addition, for the first time I shot the photos using my Canon Digital Rebel XT SLR camera instead of my smartphone camera. (My Droid 3 smartphone can take okay pictures but they tend to lack the fine quality detail of my Canon.)
What you see in the photos is what actually happened, starting with the very noticeable tents that you start to see underneath the fall foilage when you first arrive at McPherson Square.
As you can see, there are more tents in McPherson Square than ever before. That area has also drawn more tourists and locals on the weekends than before. (Truth be told, the K Street, N.W. area used to be dead on the weekends. The shops and restaurants would have limited hours and very few people walked around the area. For years there used to be debates on how to encourage more people to visit this section of K Street on the weekends.) I wouldn't be surprised if the local shops and restaurants experienced a spike in weekend profits because of the protesters' presence.
There are a lot homey touches to the tents now, which indicates that the campers are here for the long haul.
Here's a scrap pile area.
Behind this bench and the hula hoops is the sign-making area.
The People's Library is more organized than before and it now includes shelves for board games and DVDs.
Someone erected a Native American-style teepee.
For those who are religious or more interested in spirituality, there is now a prayer tent that runs interfaith services on a regular basis.
There is a sign announcing the creation of a "Radical Info Shop" that will come soon. Hopefully it'll be up and running the next time I visit the site.
Here are some of the memorable signs I saw at the site.
Here's a tribute to Scott Olsen, the Marine Corp veteran who suffered a fractured skull and brain damage at the hands of the Oakland police when they attempted a brutal and heavy-handed crackdown of Occupy Oakland in California a few weeks ago. (He remains hospitalized as of this writing.)
It's fitting to find Guy Fawkes masks like this one on Guy Fawkes Day.
Some of the protesters brought their pets with them to the Occupy DC site.
This artist was interviewed by a reporter before he started work on his latest painting, which was based on the tents erected in McPherson Square.
At one point members of a Baptist church congregation came by the Occupy DC site with food, shoes, and clothes for the protesters. They also left behind free literature about Jesus Christ.
There were plenty of photographers and videographers at the Occupy DC site.
These are some of the young children who are staying at the Occupy DC site with their parents/guardians.
This bicyclist was protesting the proposed Keystone Pipeline that would transport tar sands from Canada to the U.S. that proponents say would provide much needed jobs as well as provide energy independence for the U.S. and critics say would be a potential environmental hazard and the U.S. oil companies would use the fuel to sell in other countries instead of using it in the U.S. so it wouldn't really make the U.S. energy independent. The following day there was an action at the White House where people encircled that building to protest the Keystone Pipeline.
Much of the corporate-owned media and the right-wing media tend to portray the protesters as being dressed in hippie garb. While I've seen hippie types, I've also seen people wearing other types of clothes, such as punk rock gear and even someone who came dressed in a Revolutionary War-era costume (which proves that the Tea Party isn't the only one whose members dress like it's 1776).
During my time there I saw people just chilling out and engaging in low-stress, non-political activity like playing music instruments and knitting.
For those who continue to say that the Occupy movement is a far-left wing movement, I have to say that it's not true. Case in point: Someone left a sign and table literature touting Republican cadidate Ron Paul for president. When I was there, no one attempted to take down the sign or dismantle the table or throw away the literature. Everyone left the Ron Paul campaign stuff as is.
I wasn't able to stick around for the daily 6 p.m. General Assembly because my husband and I were invited to dinner at a friend's house that night. One day I hope I'll be able to sit in on another General Assembly when I make another visit to Occupy DC.
NOTE: This entry was cross-posted in the Sagittarius Dolly blog.