MoT asked me to post this because he is on the road to Boston - or he should be arriving pretty soon if not there already.
Two days ago I went down to Occupy Wallstreet to get some lunch. The food there is unbelievable and the dedication of the kitchen has often times left me speechless. They feed anyone - the homeless, the guys in suits, the squatters, the poor, the working poor, and yes - even the rich.
In fact I was insanely mad last night when I viewed the New York Post's cover story basically calling all the protesters elitists because they had the audacity to eat healthy well prepared food. What they don't understand is that these are coming from donations. From people who offer up their apartments in a rotating fashion to cook - and deliver food. From restaurants who don't mind contributing or accepting our money - from Kossacks who are coming every weekend to deliver food - from people on the street donating apples. Since I have been able to go down there and eat I have saved more money on food then I have ever in the last ten years.
That is huge for me. It is one of the factors that allow me to continue on staying down here.
So yes - I won't link to the post but they can go fuck themselves. Since when has feeding the poor been wrong? Since when is giving FREE food wrong? Since when is running a donation based kitchen wrong? Oh - wait - I forgot - It helps liberals so it must fall into the elitist latte drinking meme that conservatives have established over the years. Maybe if we turned a profit they would say we have created a market based solution and should now go along and be good capitalists and make a profit. Again - they can go fuck themselves. It makes me sick. It makes me want to ask them what else should we do with the food?
Throw it away like the giant bag the homeless dig through at night when burger king, subway or any restaurant throws away at the end of the night? You know because donating that food would be wrong since someone didn't have the nerve to pay for it so that it has to go to waste.
I ask those people "Have you ever been hungry? Have you ever had to choose between a metrocard and groceries? Have you ever known what your parents had to do to put food on the table?
If you are down here and have not eaten from the kitchen - please do so. I've been able to have two square meals a day because of them and am thankful that they realized early on you can't have a war without filling the peoples bellies.
end rant
Anyway - I was heading down to the kitchen to get lunch when I ran into MoT by the media desk. I didn't have much time to run around since I am only allowed 25-30 minutes for my lunch break. I saw behind me there was a decent sized crowd of people gathered around and I recognized Cenk. He's pretty unmistakable. I asked Jesse if he was gonna do a piece with him and he was like - I dunno - maybe dude - I havn't spoken to him yet.
Well it panned out and here is the interview:
MinistryOfTruth on The Young Turks
Now they do not have this video up on YouTube so I have not been able to embed it. I've tried for the last hour actually to find a way to embed it and it's a little aggravating to say the least. If anyone has the savvy to be able to embed it in the comments I would love that and MoT would be appreciative.
Now yesterday a few people suggested that I put up a link to my paypal account to help support me in staying down here. It's hard to ask for money from a community that has given me much and I have learned from since Kos's inception. I am trying to raise enough money so I can get out of my 900 dollar rent hole that seems to just keep repeating.
Paypal
Email: Austintool@gmail.com
Not sure if you need any more information but thank you and we will continue to hold the front lines down at OWS.
Tomorrow I will be taking pictures of my tent set up - the general assembly and doing a few interviews with the Kitchen staff.
4:42 PM PT: Just finished seeing Michael Moore speak @ ows. He apparently wants to have a movie night and show V for Vendetta. I'm down for it. I missed recording a buncha the conversation because my phone had reached it limit on video go figure. Hopefully I can do some more high tech stuff in the future.