After being in NYC for a week, both as an onlooker as well as a participant in the OWS movement, I’ll offer a few opinions should you care to take the time to read them.

WHAT OCCUPY IS ABOUT… As I stated in my last blog, I am a staunch supporter of why the Occupy movement was born, and I still do not think the majority of people understand that WHAT THE PEOPLE ARE OUT PROTESTING IS THE ECONOMIC INJUSTICE THAT PREVAILS IN OUR GOVERNMENT. Basically, matter not your political persuasion, you have to see that there is no bipartisanship left in the government. The right and the left are so divided that they no longer work FOR the people. For those of us who lean to the left, it is very clear that Obama wanted to give us hope and change. It became clear shortly after his FAIR election to the presidency of this country, that he was not running the show. The captain of the ship took a back seat to the corrupt navigational crew. I’m not going to get more “political” than that here because it is clear that no matter what your political “values” are, that the government is working only for the people that are buying control in it. AND it’s not only in this country that people are uprising and saying that they have had enough, it’s worldwide.

YOUR WORLD… It’s just fine if your little world and your comfort zone are still intact. It gives you a reason to ignore, judge or dismiss the movement completely. You can listen to the major media, both left and right orientated sources and what they are censoring to the hilt. You can say we are a bunch of lazy hippies and unemployed who don’t want to “work.”. You can say what you want, believe what you want, but this movement is not going away. Come out and see that there are people from ALL walks of life involved. For example, last Thursday on his way to work, I spoke to a lawyer who represents a big bank on Wall St. This is what he said… “I fucking hate my job. I work for crooks. I have a family to support and it’s the only reason I do not walk right out the door now. I’ve been down to Occupy every night after work and fully support what the movement is about.”

You are whether you want to admit it or not.

TIME TO WAKE UP… If you want to ignore the government corruption, fine. If you want to say that protesting is not enough, fine. However,  I suggest you open your eyes now because if Washington is allowed to keep on operating the way it does, it will only be a matter of time until YOU ARE DIRECTLY EFFECTED! What this movement is begging you to do is open your eyes and care about how EVERYONE is being effected except the very rich and those in Washington who keep the corruption and madness intact, those who have been deemed the 1%. What this movement is asking you to to do is WAKE UP and DO SOMETHING BEFORE YOUR PERSONAL LITTLE WORLD IS EFFECTED.

I have been a staunch supporter of OWS from it’s inception. However, I am not a supporter of completely enveloping a public park and making it a home for anything else besides giving space for the protest to continue. From my understanding, OWS began as a protest of big bank involvement in our government and corporate greed. What I witnessed there the last few days as an observer included just a smidgen of that. There were the people on the exterior of the park holding signs that had something poignant to say. There were “Grannies for Peace” singing their rearranged lyrics to what were originally written as patriotic songs. As expected, there were a LOT of tourists and vendors doing their usual thing in NYC.

Saturday the 12th was the first day I really entered the encampment. As always, I’m pretty careful about just pointing my camera at people and taking photos. With a humble demeanor, I wasn’t getting a very friendly response. People wanted something from me at every turn, mostly money to be inside the camp and even more to take pictures. They were not asking for, yet demanding, cigarettes. Overall, inside the encampment, they were not very kind or peaceful, although a few women were willing to talk and have their picture taken. At one point, I heard a small child say to her father that she had a very bad feeling and wanted to leave. Children and animals have the best instincts

Yesterday, the 14th, I was inside Zuccotti again, this time with someone who had been going down there since the beginning each and every day and night in full support of the original cause and movement. This person was completely aligned with the movement until it became dangerous, meaning that there was blatant drug use and dealing going on inside the park in the tents as well as incidents of sexual abuse. Women were being told not to report acts of sexual violence or anything else that could attract negative attention. Basically, the site of OWS had become not just “home” for the protests, but also a site for the aforementioned which was making it perilous on quite a few levels. Therefore, it is no surprise to me that it was dismantled in the wee hours this morning as the Police had their eye on everything happening.

As supporters of and participators in the movement, it is our job to remember the REAL reason that the people are out in the masses all over the world. We have to remember that it is our job to respect public places, not overtake them. We have to remember that we need to respect that the police are more than willing to work WITH the movement if the movement stays peaceful and legal. As far as I know, there has never been any overnight camping allowed in any parks in Manhattan or any other city I have ever lived in or visited. It’s one thing to Occupy, isn’t OVERTAKING somewhat in alignment with what the protesters are actually protesting, as in corporations taking over government?

This is just my perspective and again, I fully support the original reasons that brought people out to Occupy. It’s quite obvious that CHANGE needs to happen. I don’t know what the next step is, but I do know that is has to be peaceful and RESPECTFUL if it is going to bring anything positive for humanity and our planet. It doesn’t have to, nor should it be violent in any way, shape or form.