ENOUGH! By Hugo Hanriot U.S.A., September 17, 2011: Debra, in the Wall Street District, from the Federal Court House stairs, witnessed in disbelief the passing crowd displaying signs of protest. Not even in her dreams could she visualize what was happening. Debra was an aspiring artist, struggling to sell her paintings. To survive, she had taught art in a public school, and doubled as D.J. in a small radio station. She was one the many teachers laid off when the economical crisis hit New York City schools. It forced her to vacate her apartment and move back with her parents. “How in hell is someone with a college education not able to afford a place to live?” she ranted to her small radio audience some time after losing her job. Magic words! The radio station switchboard lit up as a Christmas tree. “I guess misery has plenty of company,” she laughed in disbelief. An angry male caller gave her a hint of the nerve she had just pinched. “How do you justify the 20 million bonuses that executives rewarded themselves for driving their corporations near bankruptcy? It happened right after the government bailed them out with taxpayer money. Meantime we have millions of unemployed, some for more than a year. I’m one of them.” Because of the load of callers waiting to vent their anger, Debra opted not to play more music for that day; instead, she listened to her audience’s outrage. She heard bitter complaints about unemployment, stagnant wages, the rising cost of living, and the shrinking of the middle class. “Aren’t we driving our nation into a ‘poor and wealthy’ society? Soon we’ll become one of those underdeveloped countries that we used to criticize,” one woman pointed out bitterly. “The previous lady raised a legitimate question,” said the following caller, “What burns me up is why a few are riding the gravy train, speculating in the stock market, getting richer, and artificially inflating our cost of living, we – the middle class – are being wiped out without even putting up a fight. Where is the spirit of the 60s and 70s?” Debra instinctively reacted to the caller, “Why don’t we picket Wall Street? Let them and the politicians feel our outrage.” Immediately, one caller offered to invite her disgruntled friends from her social website to the proposed rally. There were many others callers, also activists on the internet, willing to do the same. Debra, numbed by the massive response she had triggered, stepped down from the Federal Court House stairs, and joined the protesters displaying their signs of discontent. The horde kept growing. She was amazed by the diversity of it. Mostly, they were young college graduates and dropouts – all unemployed – there were also the middle-aged and seniors of diverse ethnic and social backgrounds; it was a true face of America’s rich diversity. “My wife has been unemployed for six months. I lost my job more than a year ago. Our house will be in foreclosure soon. We brought our son with us to teach him how to fight injustice,” a man in his early thirty’s confided to the group that walked next to him. “We would like to stay with you guys until this protest ends, but we are forced to go back to Pennsylvania this evening; we cannot afford a hotel,” the wife added. “Why don’t you guys stay with us,” a younger protester asked them. “We are planning to camp in Zucotti Park, a few blocks from here. We are expecting well-wishers and kind spirits to provide us with food and blankets.” What started as an improvised protest began growing into a huge movement that surprised the city. The movement perpetuated itself with daily protests. In the evenings, a number of them stuck together at Zucotti Park, improvised as their camping site. They had chosen a group of leaders to organize the tables to serve the food (either donated or cooked on portable grills), distribute blankets, publish a newspaper using their laptops, create a mail drop-off to receive the donations that began pouring in; and also important, to provide the portable toilets. Without realizing it, they had built a mini city. To protect the purity of the camping, they selected sharp eyes to screen out the opportunist trying to expend time touring Manhattan, counting on the free sleeping quarters and food of the movement. Every day, while serving breakfast, the improvised leaders re-emphasized to the group that, for the protest to succeed, there would be no violence. The media meantime had baptized the movement “Occupy Wall Street”. The faith of the protesters in their cause grew stronger every passing day by the increasing public support. Donations from all parts of the country and from overseas, with wishes for the movement to succeed, kept pouring in. None more emotional than the old man, modestly dressed, who approached the donation table. “I want to thank you for the sacrifice you are making. I’m 60-year old and permanently disabled, unable to march, but my heart and hopes are with you. I fully support this clamor for social change,” he said, depositing $50 cash into the donation box. Debra – who never took credit for coming out with the protest rally idea – decided to join the campers for one night in Zuccoti Park. The Park owned by Brookfield – a development company – instantly had become the epicenter of the protesters. As the movement grew, the park was becoming too small. The leaders were planning to move headquarters to Washington Square Park. Meantime the media, sympathetic to Wall Street, had reported how a Woodstock libertine-type of behavior was invading the Park. Debra witnessed in her camping night a few creepy drug addicts that had crashed into the movement. Unfortunately, it was an unavoidable malaise with all popular protests. Luckily, the movement had kept its peaceful nature, despite some rough testy moments with the police; especially when the protesters swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge, halting the traffic for nearly three hours. At the end, cool heads from both sides prevailed. As of October 11, 2011, what started as a loosely improvised protest had spread to 103 cities in 36 states, and also globally. Pepper-sprayed incidents and the many arrests had not dented the protesters’ determination to reverse, through peaceful means, the economical and social disparity between the two percent very wealthy and the rest of the nation. I’ll see you next week with a new story. TO READ MORE OF HUGO’S STORIES GO TO amazon/author/hugohanriot TO GET OUR NEWSLETTER VIA E-MAIL FEATURING OUR WEEKLY FREE NEW STORY, GO TO THE RIGHT HAND COLUMN OF STORIES4REAL.COM AND USE THE “REGISTER” OR “SUBSCRIBE” BUTTON. TO SEND A COMMENT ABOUT THIS STORY VISIT facebook and search for Hugo Hanriot
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 15:50:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015