Photo: Stacy Lanyon
The drum circle ended up drawing me to Occupy Wall Street. I had an interview
at a store nearby. I finished the interview, and I was walking around, and I
hear all these drums, so I walked toward Zuccotti Park, and there are the drums,
and I see all these tents up, and I’m like, “What’s going on? Is this like a
street fair?” I was confused as to what it was at first. It just drew me. I
wanted to play the drums, but I didn’t have the guts to do so. I started
showing up every couple of days, and eventually I had the courage to get on
the drum circle, and I started drumming.
I started talking to all these
different people trying to figure out why everyone was here, and I was getting
different answers, but I realized that there was something common about all of
our diverse answers. We were here for a better world. We wanted something
better than what we had. There are people out there that still need to wake up,
that are still brainwashed, that are like, “Oh, this is how it has to be,” and
it’s not. We’ve been oppressed for so long by this government of ours that we literally just move out of the way and say, “Why should I question this?” We
should be questioning our government and the malicious things that they do
behind doors, things all over the world, not just in our country. They are screwing
over a lot of countries that don’t have the resources that other countries do,
and they get exploited by our government and the people that run this world. It’s
all sorts of different governments. It’s not just our government. Seeing that,
talking more with people, it drew me more and more.
I was looking for work, and I got to the
point where I knew there were plenty of things that I had skills in, that I could help out with. That’s
what I did. I started asking around at different sections of the park. I was
asking sanitation. I was asking kitchen. I was asking the media, medics. Everybody
was like, “We already have it covered.” Eventually, I ended up at the tobacco
station. That’s how I started getting to
know more and more people. It was a great way to interact and network with all these
interesting individuals that eventually became my friends, and some of them are
really close to me as a family. They might not be blood, but I see them as a
family.
My life is nothing like what it was. I had an apartment like all of these
people have, and I realized that it all was materialistic. I still felt empty
inside. I had some roommates, and we got along, but there was just something
about life that felt empty, and once I got involved with Occupy, the emptiness
slowly started getting filled up. I had this overwhelming sensation of belonging and having
something in my life for once. I felt that this was what I was looking for. It
can be hectic at times. It can be very frustrating, but that goes along with anything
in life. If you want something, you gotta work at obtaining it. Sometimes you
have to deal with the struggles within the movement, but in the end, we all take a
step back, and we realize that we’re all in it together and just continue
spreading the message out there just to make people wake up, to make them
realize that this is not the way it should be.
If things continue the way they are going, we’re not going
to have much to leave behind for the generations to come. There are people out there that are trying to make these companies
realize that there are other ways that you can energize the world that we live
in through natural resources and much more environmentally friendly ways, but
because they are making millions off of their products, people who bring those
ideas are shut down. The greed of very few just harms everyone around them, and
if they are able to realize that their actions affect others beyond
themselves, maybe one day they will wake up, and maybe we can start making some
changes. That’s why it’s so important, for our future.
We have become so handicapped with technology that we forgot
our roots and how to actually survive out in the wilderness. Everything is
already pre-made for us. Hopefully, eventually, we can learn all these skills
that we all can harness, and we can help one another out. I see it coming from
a third world country, Guatemala. I go visit my grandparents up in the
mountains, and they grow their own crops. They’re
self-sustainable. They don’t need to go to a store for this or that. They have
it. If we take the time to learn these skills, then we don’t need to be
depending on all these corporations and all these companies. It’s a big vicious
cycle. We are in part to blame for it because we have just become so
comfortable with everything that’s being handed over to us rather than actually
taking the time and learning a skill and creating something ourselves.
Hopefully, with all this awareness and all these words that we’re putting out
there, maybe we can eventually be more self-sustainable.
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/