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Photo: Stacy Lanyon
I remember talking with one of my friends about Occupy at the one of the places that I worked at, and they were like, “Ten bucks says the ambulance gets
called there in five minutes,” and I was like, “Word.” I didn’t really know
what it was about at first. I just thought it was a bunch of people just
yelling at each other. When I got off, I was like, “Ah, I’ll go check it out.” I walked around. I went in through info and the people’s library, and I was like, “This is so not what I thought it was going
to be.” I was like, “This is kind of cool.” I started talking to people, and I
found out that there was a medical tent, so I walked over there and was like, “Hey,
what are you guys doing?” I met some really cool people there. I worked with
Doctor Dave, and I started pulling volunteer shifts there. Then, they would do
days of action, which I was totally about. I started talking to people
about what they were there for. I got into political debates with people from class war camp and info, especially people from the people’s library.
I lived midtown in the park. It was cool. I really liked it. I had done activism a little bit. I had dabbled in it here and there, but at Occupy I became aware that there was a group of people that really wanted to get together and start changing some shit, and they weren’t going to just sit down and be quiet anymore. That’s where I got frustrated dabbling in the activist world because it was like, “Here, read my pamphlet. I hope you’re not bored.” For me it’s like, “Here, I’m standing right here. You’re not going to get to ignore me anymore." There were some things that bothered me, the need for a women’s tent, the need for security. There was a need for those certain securities to be put in place, so people didn’t get attacked, but by the same token, I guess that comes in any society. It was just on a bigger scale for us because we were in a smaller community. If you look at the rest of the city, there are crisis shelters. There are whole buildings devoted to this. It just became a bigger deal to us because we were such a small community. That was kind of hard, and that kind of sucked. I would do medical shifts and then I would stay up and guard the women’s tent. It was for a good reason. I felt safe when I was sleeping in the women’s tent because I knew someone was right outside. I wish everyone could have got along, but there are always going to be differences between people. You take that in with any kind of community that you live in.
I lived midtown in the park. It was cool. I really liked it. I had done activism a little bit. I had dabbled in it here and there, but at Occupy I became aware that there was a group of people that really wanted to get together and start changing some shit, and they weren’t going to just sit down and be quiet anymore. That’s where I got frustrated dabbling in the activist world because it was like, “Here, read my pamphlet. I hope you’re not bored.” For me it’s like, “Here, I’m standing right here. You’re not going to get to ignore me anymore." There were some things that bothered me, the need for a women’s tent, the need for security. There was a need for those certain securities to be put in place, so people didn’t get attacked, but by the same token, I guess that comes in any society. It was just on a bigger scale for us because we were in a smaller community. If you look at the rest of the city, there are crisis shelters. There are whole buildings devoted to this. It just became a bigger deal to us because we were such a small community. That was kind of hard, and that kind of sucked. I would do medical shifts and then I would stay up and guard the women’s tent. It was for a good reason. I felt safe when I was sleeping in the women’s tent because I knew someone was right outside. I wish everyone could have got along, but there are always going to be differences between people. You take that in with any kind of community that you live in.
To explain why I think it's important, I'm going to focus on the medical aspect. There are people in this country that live with broken legs
and don’t go to the hospital because they can’t afford the hospital bill. I
feel like medical treatment should be a human right, just plain and simple. It
is in a lot of other places. There are so many different health things that are
so pressing that people can really die from. It can be really dangerous. Kids
my age get screwed. The twenty-one to twenty-six year olds get
screwed. They don’t have access to things that they need like OB/GYN
appointments, normal healthcare practitioner appointments. Psychiatric services
are often not covered by their normal health plan, and that’s ridiculous. If you’re
a person in America, and you’re struggling with something, there should be adequate
services to help you with that problem, and it shouldn’t cost you your house or
not feeding your family to be able to afford these things.
I feel like in America one of the worst things that I see is that if it’s not happening to you, then it doesn’t exist. If they're not affected or a family member is not affected directly, they're like, “It’s really bad for them. I feel terrible,” but they're not really willing to do anything about it. We need to learn how to stick-up for one another. I feel like if we all had the mentality that if one of our people goes down, we all go down, if people who weren’t so asleep would wake up for a moment and be like, “Yo, maybe this shit could be really bad, and possibly I could be affected," maybe we’d have health care for people who are dying and sick and shit, and maybe pharmaceutical companies wouldn’t be like, “I can make thousands of dollars off of you.”
I have epilepsy now, and I’ve had it for a while, but now I found out that with the increase of my dosage, it’s like $1300 a month for the necessary medication. If I didn’t have a health insurance plan, if I wasn’t on Medicaid and I wasn’t grandfathered in because it’s a pre-existing condition, I’d be fucked. I can’t afford $1300. Where am I going to get $1300 a month? Rob a bank? I looked up prices for heart medication, which is pretty vital if you want to keep breathing, you know that thing you have to do to live, and it’s like two grand a month. I think that’s criminal. They're robbing people blind for something that is absolutely necessary for them to live. It’s great if you have no health complications, kudos to you. You are so incredibly lucky, but for people who have health complications, it’s a battle with insurance companies to get help, and they often don’t. They don’t give a damn.
I feel like in America one of the worst things that I see is that if it’s not happening to you, then it doesn’t exist. If they're not affected or a family member is not affected directly, they're like, “It’s really bad for them. I feel terrible,” but they're not really willing to do anything about it. We need to learn how to stick-up for one another. I feel like if we all had the mentality that if one of our people goes down, we all go down, if people who weren’t so asleep would wake up for a moment and be like, “Yo, maybe this shit could be really bad, and possibly I could be affected," maybe we’d have health care for people who are dying and sick and shit, and maybe pharmaceutical companies wouldn’t be like, “I can make thousands of dollars off of you.”
I have epilepsy now, and I’ve had it for a while, but now I found out that with the increase of my dosage, it’s like $1300 a month for the necessary medication. If I didn’t have a health insurance plan, if I wasn’t on Medicaid and I wasn’t grandfathered in because it’s a pre-existing condition, I’d be fucked. I can’t afford $1300. Where am I going to get $1300 a month? Rob a bank? I looked up prices for heart medication, which is pretty vital if you want to keep breathing, you know that thing you have to do to live, and it’s like two grand a month. I think that’s criminal. They're robbing people blind for something that is absolutely necessary for them to live. It’s great if you have no health complications, kudos to you. You are so incredibly lucky, but for people who have health complications, it’s a battle with insurance companies to get help, and they often don’t. They don’t give a damn.
I hope for a world where it’s not sixty degrees in January. It’s
seriously hot outside. Global warming sucks. I got sick because it was like
fifty degrees and then it was like two. In places around the world, in poor places, where people have nothing, they know that they’re really poor, and they barter for
everything. They take care of each other. One of them gets sick, and everyone
is worried about that one first, and they figure out how to get them better.
People really genuinely look out for each other because they realize, “Hey,
this is my community. If one goes down, then everyone goes down.” That’s kind
of the model that I hope would come around. I know that people argue and people
have different opinions and different ways of looking at the world, but I feel
like we’d come to realize “Hey, we all breathe. We’re all made of 78% water. We all bleed the same
color."
I would like us to come together and learn how to protect each other, and learn that maybe some of the shit that we fight over if really frickin’ petty, and that we don’t need to drop bombs every time we get our feelings hurt a little bit. I feel like if we could all just wake up. There are people in Occupy that I have not had the same viewpoints with. There was one that I wanted to punch in the face every time I saw them, but I didn’t. There’s a person that I had an argument with, and I couldn’t just go up to that person and punch them in the face. I had to remember that this person has a valid way of feeling the way that they do. I’ve got to remember that, and I get angry really fast, and that’s fine, but at the end of the day, that’s some petty bullshit to be arguing about. Let’s work for something that’s worth fighting for, that we can leave for someone. Eventually, we are all going to be gone, and we have to leave it for someone else to pick-up the pieces, and I feel like everything that’s going on with fracking, health care, wars, it’s just going to be their problem. If we could lighten that load so maybe their lives wouldn’t suck, it would be awesome.
I would like us to come together and learn how to protect each other, and learn that maybe some of the shit that we fight over if really frickin’ petty, and that we don’t need to drop bombs every time we get our feelings hurt a little bit. I feel like if we could all just wake up. There are people in Occupy that I have not had the same viewpoints with. There was one that I wanted to punch in the face every time I saw them, but I didn’t. There’s a person that I had an argument with, and I couldn’t just go up to that person and punch them in the face. I had to remember that this person has a valid way of feeling the way that they do. I’ve got to remember that, and I get angry really fast, and that’s fine, but at the end of the day, that’s some petty bullshit to be arguing about. Let’s work for something that’s worth fighting for, that we can leave for someone. Eventually, we are all going to be gone, and we have to leave it for someone else to pick-up the pieces, and I feel like everything that’s going on with fracking, health care, wars, it’s just going to be their problem. If we could lighten that load so maybe their lives wouldn’t suck, it would be awesome.
I think we could definitely advance in science, green
energy, figure out how to be self-sustainable. If we could get over the
whole, “I hate you” kind of thing, we have the potential to do a lot. Look at
the scientific studies that are going on with robotics right now. Look at the
cures for different diseases. Hey, let’s ban fracking, so we can have water
that we could drink without dying, which would be really cool. I mean, I like
water. If we could bring everybody up to the same
kind of level, an equal playing field, where everyone gets their equal shot. People that can't pay for school or are stifled by things like the student debt, they could never get
into a good college and could never be that person who could find the cure for Polio.
They’re never going to get that option if they’re at Stanford Community College
taking night classes because they can’t afford their rent. If we could get
everyone up to that same playing field, then maybe that one person who actually
has the mind and intellect to do those things, could do those things. It would be
interesting.