Photo: Stacy Lanyon
I was traveling through Providence. That’s when Occupy Wall
Street began. I was like, “Yeah, I want to do that,” but I felt like I was
stuck in Providence until I ran into these homeless, traveling art kids at a
homeless shelter. I hooked them up with where to get breakfast, and then they’re
like, “We’re traveling the country. You should come with us. Our next stop is
New York.” I’m like, “Okay, let’s go. Occupy Wall Street! I mean you’re
homeless. Let’s go down there and check it out.” I was new to the whole protest
gig. That’s what I’ve wanted to do. I wanted to protest and just check it out
and see how it was going and what it was all about, so I came. I saw. We were
going to go to DC next, but they left without me because the day that the bus
left, they were like, “We gotta be here at this time. Are you coming?” I was
laying down in Zuccotti. They’re like, “Are you coming?” I had my shirt off. I
was totally relaxed, shoes off and everything. “Are you coming?” I was like, “No,
I’m staying here,” and they’re like, “Why?” “Because I fell in love.” I fell in
love with Occupy.
The history of Occupation is important. The various messages
we’re trying to get across to people, they’re important. Speaking your mind and
getting the message out there, that’s very important. Everything we are doing
is important, but I don’t think the movement is important. I think that you can
protest everyday by yourself without the aid of the movement. I understand that
you need a mass of people. Okay, we take this commons. What if the cops never fucked with us? Ask
yourself this. What if we take Union Square Park and the cops never kicked us
out at night, never bothered us? What if there’s never even a police presence? Okay
cool, we’ve got that obstacle out of the way. Now what? “Let’s pitch tents”
people would say. Okay, we pitch our tents. Okay, we’ve established our right
to assemble. We’ve assembled just like in Zuccotti. What’s next? The same thing
that happened in Zuccotti. Nothing happened. Nothing came next. Things were
taken away. The morning march, I miss that. That was something I looked forward
to every day. We stopped doing that at Zuccotti. People say they want to
destroy capitalism. I say let’s get out there and destroy it.
I want to see anarchism. I want to see people treating each
other with dignity. I want to be able to walk up to a stranger and say, “I love
you! I’ll take a bullet for you.” Actually, not that last part because in my
world, there will be no need for bullets. I want to walk up to a stranger and
say, “I love you!” “I love you too!” and get on with my day. That’s the kind of
world I want to live in. Here’s your experiment. Go out and try this for
yourself. Go up to one of these busy
bodies anywhere in midtown. Go to random busy guy on a phone, “I love you!” and
just see what he does. What he would actually do, I don’t want that. I want to
do away with it.
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/