A Visit to OccupyBoston Oct-9, 2011 02:00pm
Chanting in question and answer format, slogans such as, "Who is the 99%? We are the 99%!", the Occupy Boston group and their supporters marched through downtown Boston Saturday, making their message clear: it is Us vs. the Banks.

Here in Boston is a little self-governing tent city. There is no chaos within the tents. No shouting or arguing. No little dictatorships. No one is in charge. They are of small groups, discussing what to do, from the march to the food, co-ordinating with each other and with those constantly showing up to offer support.

Behind the scenes earlier in the week someone worked with the city to get permits. People here are buying things. They are working within the economy and government of Boston.

Of course there are "hippies" here, long-haired and loosely dressed, but they are not the hippies of the 60's, and they are few in number. The majority here are people who buy their clothes at the Mall. But they are both of a generation with their country still involved in an unjust war.

As the day wears on the thirty or so tent occupiers are joined by people and spectators from all walks of life. There are a few families spending the afternoon. There are baby carriages. There are Vietnam veterans and union workers. No one here, though, is wearing a suit and tie — they will leave the surrounding buildings later today. Some will come by, a Vietnam veteran said to a reporter, and enter in the discussion even.

The march starts a half-hour late with enthusiasm. Nearly 200 people join in. The "hippies" make up the front, carrying the "Occupy Boston" banner. The marchers are an eclectic group of all generations, but the majority are 20 to 30.

As they marched through the streets — with the police diverting traffic — restaurant goers *, pedestrians, shoppers, store workers and store owners all gawked with a kind of amazement, as if such a march was totally unexpected and amusing. Some people though, looked on with jaw-dropping wonder. Some cheered them on. A few people looked annoyed.

"Join us," some of the marchers called. A few did.

Overall, the observers were enjoying what is happening. And I have never seen so many iPhones and other smart phone and cameras. It seems the majority of Bostonians are "armed" with picture devices.

The march ends back at Dewey Square an hour or so later with the marchers still vocal and cheering. Those hard-core occupiers, with about 50 or so followers, then squatted in front of the Federal Reserve building, with a line of police and police motorcycles with their lights flashing blocking the entrance as if to prevent the protesters from going inside.

The protesters were still chanting and cheering, the cameras still clicking, in the warm setting sun when I left. The day was a success. The occupier's message was clearly heard.

The New York Times' Sunday editorial was on the side of the Wall Street occupation, saying,

"The message — and the solutions — should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention. The problem is that no one in Washington has been listening. [The protesters] are exactly right when they say that the financial sector, with regulators and elected officials in collusion, inflated and profited from a credit bubble that burst."

Whew. What a day.


* Many restaurants have outdoor seating.

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Deaths vs Arrests Nov-25, 2011 09:01pm
There were, as of today, Nov-25:

4801 U.S. casualties in Iraq

4752 Arrests at Occupy demontrations

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Twitter Nov-25, 2011 09:20pm
Twitter: You are trapped in a maze of a million tiny messages all different.

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"Health and Safety" Nov-26, 2011 06:48pm
I thought I was hearing the same phrase again and again by Mayors to justify the taking down of Occupy sites:

and+safety+concerns+occupy

Seems like coordination to me.

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Proper Journalism, Well Written Blogs Nov-27, 2011 06:48pm
Kooky Things Nov-29, 2011 07:57pm
Wristbands
Ribbons

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Supermeme Dec-1, 2011 11:01pm
"A meme is an idea that behaves like a virus—that moves through a population, taking hold in each person it infects." — Malcolm Gladwell

The "Occupy"/"99%" idea has evolved beyond a meme. Never before has an idea spread so rapidly throughout the entire literate world in just a few months—from a few people, to millions, spread on an infrastructure of wires, satellites, microwaves, run by computers, this idea is now everywhere. This idea is now a "supermeme."

The wired (and wireless) world was ready for this. Could one say even, made for this? Have the wires and computers and social networks evolved into something greater than the sum of its parts? Are the wires becoming intelligent? Some sort of artificial intelligence that has enabled the moaning Earth to whisper to a few: "help me."

Millions of people who have never had a "say" in this world, now do.

"We are the 99%" spread to protesters in every country on Earth in a matter of weeks. And now, after a mere three months, these words no longer need to be explained when written or talked about in the Media — these words have gone beyond the vernacular and have now become self-evident — world-wide.

Many Occupy encampments are now gone, and many still remain. Protesters the world over, though, will never forget the idea of the 99%. Non-protesters and anti-protesters too will never forget. It is too late for that.

In the words of Thomas Jefferson:

"That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density at any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation."

Now is the time of the 99%.

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Cool Things Dec-5, 2011 11:08am
neologism
meme
agitprop
lulz

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