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Photo: Stacy Lanyon
I came down for the Yom Kipper service, which was in early
October. I had heard about it from friends, and I had wanted to come down
here, but I didn’t have the time like a lot of New Yorkers. I grew up in Seattle.
I was involved the WTO protests when I was in high school, and in college I
kinda got away from activism. It seemed like it didn’t make sense anymore or
make much of a difference. It didn’t seem like a really good use of my time. I'm really interested in community building and playing music and trying to
organize square dances and using music to build community awareness. It seemed like all of that stuff was happening down here. When I realized it was
really a community happening here, that people were actually getting together and
having conversations and holding a space, I just wanted to be a part of that.
It’s so important because that’s what a society is. It’s
people living together. We’ve gotten to this place where we have a culture, but
it’s all based on connecting through the internet. We’re so disconnected from each other in certain ways, especially in New York. The only places we have
really to interact are bars and movies or cultural events that cost money.
People don’t really have space to gather in apartments. At first, the
idea of an occupation seemed crazy to me, but after you actually come down here and talk to
people, a certain magic happens, and it energizes you. That’s what
protests and movements are about. It’s about empowering people because life has
become so disempowering.
I feel like my whole generation is so lost at this point. We all went and did what we were supposed to do. We went to college, and there’s no jobs, and you think, “Okay, I’ll just give up on my dreams and do what I need to do to make sure I’m okay,” and you’re not even okay. Clearly we need a new model, and we need to come together to talk about it and take care of each other. That was what was happening down here. We had health care, and we had food. Everyone was actually taking care of each other. There were people like me who were trying to work and pay rent and hold down their apartments and their lives and come down here, and other people were fully a part of this thing, but it was so important to have that space where something was always happening. At any moment, if you wanted to plug in, you could go down to the park. The movement is still building without that, but it clearly really energized it and was really important for all of us. I think it’s great that it still is happening and happening in different ways. It’s not about Zuccotti Park. It’s about much more important and bigger things, but at the same time, we need a space, and we need to come together and to celebrate and dance in the streets to show the police that they can’t arrest us for those things. That’s not disorderly conduct. That’s what life is all about.
I feel like my whole generation is so lost at this point. We all went and did what we were supposed to do. We went to college, and there’s no jobs, and you think, “Okay, I’ll just give up on my dreams and do what I need to do to make sure I’m okay,” and you’re not even okay. Clearly we need a new model, and we need to come together to talk about it and take care of each other. That was what was happening down here. We had health care, and we had food. Everyone was actually taking care of each other. There were people like me who were trying to work and pay rent and hold down their apartments and their lives and come down here, and other people were fully a part of this thing, but it was so important to have that space where something was always happening. At any moment, if you wanted to plug in, you could go down to the park. The movement is still building without that, but it clearly really energized it and was really important for all of us. I think it’s great that it still is happening and happening in different ways. It’s not about Zuccotti Park. It’s about much more important and bigger things, but at the same time, we need a space, and we need to come together and to celebrate and dance in the streets to show the police that they can’t arrest us for those things. That’s not disorderly conduct. That’s what life is all about.
I hope Occupy will help bring about a world where we come
together regularly and celebrate our culture and humanity. I hope it brings a world where we are able to
exchange energy in an open and creative way that we don’t have to pay for in
this natural and beautiful world that’s already here. To me, there’s nothing wrong with money and
even capitalism. I feel it has to be controlled. This goes for life in general. Our
technology gets the best of us. Presence and mindfulness and creativity and sharing and being together are what it’s all about.
We have to find creative ways to bring that back into life because we’ve lost it. We don’t have those same cultural constructs to hold us together
anymore. I always say, movies and
concerts are the only times that we ever get together and are quiet together in a
space and not just trying to bullshit our way around as we waste another night getting drunk or whatever.
The more we can reclaim those spaces and teach each other and show each other these things that aren’t valued by money and that are the most important things, the happier we will be. I guess that’s what I really hope. I hope that it will bring us all a more happy, connected, fulfilling life. Also, I hope that it will affect real political change. Some of these laws that we’ve passed recently are just crazy. The attack on our freedoms and the way our financial system is run right now is just not cool. We need to change that. I think it’s important that it doesn’t become too much focused on just the party and community aspects but that we also use that community to accomplish something and to make the changes in our system that really, really need to be changed.
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/
The more we can reclaim those spaces and teach each other and show each other these things that aren’t valued by money and that are the most important things, the happier we will be. I guess that’s what I really hope. I hope that it will bring us all a more happy, connected, fulfilling life. Also, I hope that it will affect real political change. Some of these laws that we’ve passed recently are just crazy. The attack on our freedoms and the way our financial system is run right now is just not cool. We need to change that. I think it’s important that it doesn’t become too much focused on just the party and community aspects but that we also use that community to accomplish something and to make the changes in our system that really, really need to be changed.
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/