This moment captures the spirit of today's protest near Wall Street in the glittering marble and steel canyons of lower Manhattan; the stoic, determined MTA employee and union member with this sign. I talked to this man; he's not fucking around.
Make no mistake: what's happening down there, on that historic ground in the shadow of the new World Trade Center, is a movement, and it's just getting started. Wall Street and the exploitative social order built around it are about to hit the metaphorical red light, the sheer, long in coming outrage of the American People; and these people are not going away, they're not going to be intimidated, they are organizing. We The People are waking the fuck up.
Meet Julian. He's the media guy. A sweetheart, one might add.
Must-read: The Occupied Wall Street Journal. They're giving them away by the caseload and distributing them to all takers.
Oh, wait, just a bunch of hippies, you say?
Wrong. There's parents and kids....
...President Obama's base...
...guys in suits who got screwed just like everyone else...
...young adults...
...salt of the earth working Americans...
...kids...
...artists...
...slogans...
...flags you've never seen before....
...young, patriotic Americans...
...volunteers feeding the hungry...
...the recently arrested, coming back for more (what was that thing about the right of the people to peaceably assemble?)...
...and lastly, deserted, barricaded, lonely, the center of it all.
These protests are now three weeks old, at least here in New York City. They've broken through the media blackout. Things are about to get very real, starting Wednesday, October 5th. Correct, that's three days from now, with student walkouts and union marches across the metropolitan area converging on that spot you see right above this paragraph, and similar protests from sea to shining sea.
We were promised something as Americans: liberty and justice for all. Wherever you are in this country, it's time to fill those words with life again. Now.
OccupyWallStreet.org
NYstudentuprising.org
NYCGA.net
5:51 PM PT: And for everyone who's not in New York City itself, there's a livestream.
7:37 PM PT: And since I refuse to publish diaries without music, here's a classic: Requiem for a Dream by the brilliant Clint Mansell.
