Good morning, Kossacks and #Occupiers around the country. Although I've written long and thought out pieces in the past, today there isn't going to be too much writing. There has been an absolute flood of photos from #Occupy events from all over the country yet not too much coverage from the #OccupyPhiladelphia event. The two I'm aware of are:
DebtorsPrison's Occupy Philly Day One Photoblog and richdpa's Occupy Philadelphia Picture Blog. So if you're looking for other pictures from the #OccupyPhiladelphia event(s), be sure to click through to their diaries as well, please.
Ready? Here we go.
Before I begin, I wanted to let you and the various protesters out there aware of an article The Filthadelphia Daily News put out on Philly.com yesterday entitled Occupational Therapy - Protest Essentials. I don't know if they were merely trying to be funny or just cocky, arrogant tools but the article was a flop. And from the very first sentence about those "Occupy Philly kids," I tweeted this photo right back at them.
The Philly Inquirer liked the image, complementing me on it. The Philthy Daily news? They tried to excuse their behavior by saying they were referring to the proverbial kids. Young at heart and such.
I'm not sure exactly what kids they were talking about. Sure, there are young persons present at these events. Heck, I'm only 32 and consider myself young so I don't quite understand what the cut-off age is for "young" and/or "kids" but I'm going to include myself in it for the time being.
These folks, however, are definitely not young and the Philadelphia Daily News and other media outlets that choose to chide and diminish the efforts, values and concerns of the attendees should take this into consideration the next time they try to publish a comedy piece:
(whoever said we want to destroy capitalism altogether must surely be mistaken. Throw in some accountability and responsibility, we can figure something out)
Another one of those blasted kids and their damn protesters!
Ya know, I bet the Philthadelphia Daily news would've gotten away with it too if it wasn't for these pesky kids. And their damn grandmas!
(Love this lady. I've seen her at many a protest here in Philly.)
But are there kids? Aside from some babies and small children, I assume we're talking probably about the 18-25 subsection of America and sure, there were some of those as well.
Look! Must be some of those dirty freakin' hippies just looking for a handout that...um, some website commenter told me they were on a Philly.com article. They said it so it must be true!
Except they're not all dirty, patchouli wearing, silver spoon fed hippies Socialists. They're people from all walks of life.
Seniors:
Young adults:
Whites, blacks, hispanics:
Yes, there were some Socialists:
But they don't represent the entire, diverse group of people from all walks of life and with their own personal concerns:
You can say and believe whatever you want about our "financial backers" but this is spontaneous, grassroots action involving people from all walks of life, not some Koch-fueled Tea Party:
#Anonymous also made a small presence known. Fitting, as they walk among us every day:
I'm going to wrap it up for now. There's a for more photos available to look at and if you want to see them, just click my signature. I'm in New Jersey today but wish I could be present for these folks who are sleeping in tents at City Hall last night, the night before, tonight, and however many nights they stay moving forward.
To #OccupyPhiladelphia: Bundle up at night, ladies & gents, and stay warm. May the warm morning sun remove any dew from your clothes and help bring your cold blood back to a boil for the next day's occupation. May passerby's, if nothing else, respect your presence and not incite hatred, displeasure, or anger. The whole world IS watching, as am I. I support you in your efforts and hope to stop down and see all of you again soon!
Cheers!
(Images are All Rights Reserved, Ray Skwire, © 2011. Contact for usage requests.)
