While visiting my sister Maureen and friends in New York last week, I went downtown by subway from the Upper West Side to join the Wall Street protest in lower Manhattan. As an afterthought, I bought a poster board and Magic Marker at a card shop and proceeded to scrawl a message that read: “Vashon Island is with the 99%.”
My declaration was dashed off between subway stops, and the questionable results can be seen in the accompanying photograph taken by Mico Perceone, an Italian photographer who was documenting the New York protest for LaPrenza. It was immediately apparent to me that a poster representing the artistic island of Vashon should reflect more distinctive script and bolder lettering than I was able to render, although I cut myself some slack for creating under pressure. I mean, Tom Paine’s first draft of “Common Sense” required some graphic refinement. Where’s Will Forrester when I need him?
The site of the Wall Street protest — Zuccotti Park — is an utterly obscure city-block-sized plaza with a few carbon monoxide-ingesting trees and uninviting concrete benches. To put Zuccotti in architectural perspective here on Vashon, it lacks the charm of the pharmacy’s pocket park, even without the eucalyptus tree. Yet there it was, Zuccotti (our urban Alamo), across the street from where the Twin Towers used to be and two blocks north of Wall Street.
After schmoozing and cruising through the park, which meant stepping gingerly over occupied sleeping bags and making my way between tents and tarps as well as a functioning camp kitchen, serving lentils, rice and beans, seasoned with chutney (delicious), I joined some protesters standing along the park’s perimeters. Double-decker tourist buses circled the block. Yes, the sweet smell of cannabis was in the air.
I stood next to a tall man with a sign that read, “I’m too big to fail.” An elderly woman in a rain hat was against “corporate welfare.” There were posters for legalized marijuana as well as several signs calling for an “End to the Fed.” There was also an in-your-face directive from a bearded protester to “barbecue a banker.” I told him that they taste better if you let them marinate. I started to get into seasonings and basting techniques when he drifted away from me.
No one paid any attention to my poster until a tourist (bless him) with a German accent asked me, “Where exactly is Vashon?” It’s “near Seattle,” I replied, “in the Puget Sound.” Because Germans are precise people, I even gave him our nautical position (N 47’26’51” — W 122’27’31”), which happened to be stenciled on the old Vashon boating cap I was wearing. Later, I added “Wa.” to my sign as a concession to the geographically challenged.
It began to rain — not a heavy rain, but a slow, intermittent Vashon kind of drizzle. How appropriate, I thought. Some of the protesters took refuge in tents or under tarps but most were dancing to drums, waving banners and interacting with the public who descended in droves upon New York City’s newest tourist attraction — Zuccotti Park, formerly Liberty Park, a far more appropriate name, I thought, for what was going on there.
A hat was passed among us with coins and dollar bills inside. Pinned to the sweatband was a note: “Give what you can. Take what you need.” I saw more giving than taking, and some of those donations were coming from workers (they couldn’t all be socialists) wondering through the park on their lunch break. Maybe their generosity was recognition that they were just a paycheck away from being in the park themselves. The mood was mellow, and the karma was good.
Critics of the Wall Street protest contend that the rebellion lacks an agenda, almost as if they expected a PowerPoint presentation at the conclusion of the rally. To that point, I spotted an intense young man on top of a porto-san with a sign that read: “We’re here. We’re unclear. Get used to it.” While the messages were varied and scattered, the bottom line was that the 99 percent know the 1 percent have rigged the game in their favor at our expense.
The Tea Party characterized the Wall Street protesters as “unemployed, uneducated and uninformed.” I agree with the first indictment. They are unemployed. That’s one of the reasons they are in the park. In this economy, unemployment is not a character defect. But uneducated and uninformed they are not. As an old newspaperman, I was impressed with a computer-published four-page, four-color broadsheet called “The Occupied Wall Street Journal.” Its editorial content and analysis was superior to much of the mainstream press. These young people are media savvy and connected to the world and each other via Internet and satellite.
While most of the protesters were young, there were plenty that were middle-aged or older, including myself. I was touched by a student who thanked me for being there. A married middle manager with kids told me he had been laid off a year ago. He had exhausted his unemployment and was unable to find work, which became increasingly unattainable the longer he was unemployed. An art appreciation teacher who had been let go from a New London school district told me she had come down by bus for the day while her sister babysat her child, “just to be here.”
The day I was at the park, the police looked relaxed behind their barricades. But I knew that festive atmosphere would turn quickly if orders were given to clear the park, something that had been threatened a couple of times that week. The only thing holding the mayor and the city in check was the realization that the whole world was watching, and that’s something.
By the time I left New York, the police strategy seemed to be to wait for cold weather to drive the protesters from the park. It might work, but don’t count on it. The thing is, the protests are not limited to Zuccotti. Protests are taking place in parks, squares, plazas and malls in cities and towns all over the country, not to mention the world. Why is that? To quote an old 60s song: “There’s something happening here.”
— Brian Brown is a freelance writer who lives on Vashon Island, which is in Puget Sound (N 47’26’51” — W 122’27’31”).
