Good Morning Kossacks and Welcome to Morning Open Thread (MOT).
We're known as the MOTley Crew and you can find us here every morning at 6:30 Eastern. Feel free to volunteer to take a day - permanently or just once in awhile. With the auto-publish feature you can set it and forget it. Sometime, the diarist du jour shows up much later, that's the beauty of Open Thread...it carries on without you! Just let us know in the comments. You can click on the Morning Open Thread "heart" if you'd like us to show up in your stream every day.
Doing one of these diaries is a good way to get your feet wet if you have been hesitant about writing a diary. You can write as much or as little as you want. The audience here is always supportive
I am writing this Tuesday night, but by the time this publishes it will be the morning after a very long and busy Tuesday. There is a chance that I may be late logging on in the morning as I am very tired and slightly sunburned from the events of Tuesday. If so, please feel free to carry on without me.
Tuesday started off fairly normal and my biggest plan for the day was for my husband and I to take out two newly adopted springers to their first night of obedience training.
About mid morning, I changed clothes to do my morning three mile power walk and was ready to head out. But before starting my walk, I checked some of the websites I often frequent. One of these sites is the Occupy Tallahassee site. When I went to the site, I saw that Occupy Tallahassee had a march planned at noon through the downtown and ending at the Capitol. Right below the headline for the march was a sentence that read:
This march will have a police escort ;-)
Yes, you are reading this right. The march was going to have a police escort and here is why.
Occupy Tallahassee is located on a vacant city owned lot near the Capitol with the permission of the City of Tallahassee. The occupiers have thus far had a cordial relationship with local government officials and have cultivated a working relationship with the City of Tallahassee police. Part of Occupy Tallahassee's outreach has been to coordinate with the police department to do work days in close in neighborhoods wherein the occupiers help clean trash and debris in the area. So to hear that the march would have a police escort was not surprising to us who support Occupy Tallahassee.
At noon, two police officers arrived in an electric powered vehicle to escort our march. Whenever we reached a cross walk, the officers stopped traffic to let us safely pass. They continued with us for a number of blocks through the down town until we reached the Capitol. It seemed as though the officers enjoyed doing this as much as we did because they were smiling the entire time. There were no barriers between us and them at all. And when it was time for them to leave, all of us in the march thanked the officers and gave them a big cheer.
The difference that I have seen between the relationship of Occupy Tallahassee with the local government officials and the police department compared to so many other areas is in such stark contrast. I believe it is due to three main things. First, local government in Tallahassee is fairly progressive; second, Occupy Tallahassee has tried to work with officials on many levels, including obtaining a permit for the use of the city owned lot where the camp is located and doing community service projects; and third, the City of Tallahassee Police Dept. is heavily invested in community oriented policing which removes the barriers between the police and the citizens. I really believe in community oriented policing.
Whatever, the reasons, what is happening in Tallahassee's occupancy is refreshing and is reflective of how it should be elsewhere. And oh by the way, I marched with Occupy Tallahassee today. Our numbers are small, but very devoted to the cause and the feedback from the public has been very positive.
So that is what was on my mind today. What is on your mind?