Ted Alexandro

One Year Anniversary Convergence, September 16, 2012, Foley Square

Photo: Stacy Lanyon

What made me aware of Occupy was reading in the newspaper on September 18^th that this group of activists had set-up camp at Zuccotti Park. I wasn’t really an activist. I had been on isolated marches protesting the Iraq war, the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden, but I had never really been an activist, certainly not on a sustained basis. When I read about that, it just really intrigued me, so I went down the next day, on September 19th. I just knew immediately on seeing it that it was like home. It was overwhelming in a way. It was the thing you had been looking for without knowing you were looking for it. It was really like falling in love. Until you see the person or see the thing, you don’t know what they look like or what they embody, but just being in that space amongst those people, amongst that energy, I fell in love and continuously fall in love day after day with different people, different interactions. It was just falling in love. It was really audacious and astounding because here it was in the belly of the corporate beast, everything that embodies the values of corporatocracy. It took your breath away. That’s what it was for me. It was emotional.

It was a good lesson that things are not hopeless. I think we’re conditioned to behave certain ways and to operate within a certain paradigm that perhaps is not the healthiest for ourselves, individually or communally, or the planet at large. This for me was an education, an ongoing education being around people who had been living this way and living this message for a long time, very committed people that we’re audacious and powerful but not in the paradigm that we are used to celebrating. We’re used to celebrating the glamorous, the winners, just that whole competition mentality, the hyper-competitive paradigm that is most commonplace and pushed by corporate media. This was a breath of fresh air in innumerable ways.

I think it’s intrinsically who I strive to be, and I think it’s intrinsically human, and perhaps that’s been a bit dormant in myself personally, and dormant in society, in my estimation. We are returning the humanity to our interactions and more of an appreciation for the other, no matter how they look, dress, what they believe, what their socioeconomic background is. Again, the paradigm that we operate in exalts certain voices and certain looks, and I think that has been to our detriment. The beauty of Occupy was that it was a space that brought reverence to each being and celebrated each voice. It was like sacred space where even words a lot of times weren’t even necessary. I would just go and sit and observe. It wasn’t always about doing. Sometimes it was just sitting and watching and listening, or the random interactions. That’s what repeatedly struck me, how random interactions with strangers was so nourishing and startling in that it was a reminder of your humanity. Here we are in New York City, one of the biggest, most vibrant cities of the world. Occupy held that mirror up saying, “Maybe we can do better.”

I guess the beauty and complexity of Occupy is that it did hold up that mirror and held a spotlight on just the myriad ways that we can be better, and I guess it brought together folks that were committed and activists in a wide scope of causes. That was part of my education too. As far as specifically what I hope for, I think it’s always that balance between the micro and the macro, the micro in my own life, “How can I be more loving, be more aware of my place in the community. Am I serving the community?" Again, the paradigm that we’re brought up in can be a very selfish and self-serving paradigm, so it’s that balance of “How can I realize my skills, my abilities, so that I’m growing and evolving individually but also serving something larger." That’s on the micro level. On the macro level, it's the larger causes of social and economic justice and shining the light on this corporate takeover of all aspects of our lives, and trying to inject humanity back into our society. It's that simple act of sleeping in the park, just coming together, eating together, talking with one another, “What’s important to you? What matters to you?” and “How can we do better?” Occupy really was a question. It’s a lot about questioning, and those questions are not asked in the corporate paradigm because it doesn’t serve that purpose, to question or to challenge. For me, the questions were the beauty, the richness of it, asking those questions and coming together and asking, “How can we do better?”

I think it’s already helping to bring about a better world. It’s changed me forever. I told a friend recently, “I don’t think I’ll ever despair again,” in that sense. It was a reprimand, “Don’t despair! This does exist, and it is real.” There were so many times when it was a rebuke of the things that we assumed were true, “Maybe we just don’t care about one another, or maybe there is no hope.” You fall victim to that despair, but so many times over the course of the last year and several months now, I was reminded, “Don’t despair. This does exist. It’s real, and it’s bigger than you." It’s an energy that’s alive and real and can be tapped into and was in such a miraculous way, such an astounding, shocking way. In a way, I think we’re still processing it, and for a lot of us, myself certainly, this is my first experience with activism. It’s a reminder that this is real and this is possible. I guess on the simplest sense, love is possible. It was a space devoid of that corporate greed. People weren’t looking to sell you anything. It was the purity of, “Let’s come together, and let’s talk and be,” a world where there is just space, space to come together, space for quiet, space for questions. That’s probably our highest essence in the limited time that we’re here. It’s just those moments of real connection.

As far as our potential and what we can create, that’s a beautiful question, and that’s exactly why I kept going back to Zuccotti Park because essentially that was the question, “What would this look like?” I think it will look a lot like the park. It was all happening there, people taking care of each other, feeding one another, clothing one another, just being with one another, learning form one another. It’s not to completely denigrate the need for structures. Obviously, we need structures, but when the structure is not elevating us to our best potential and people are being squashed spiritually, financially, that structure needs to be changed. On so many levels, you see the human spirit and that best potential squashed, and it’s disheartening. I think that’s why so many people responded to the Occupy message. I think also that’s why so many people went not only to Zuccotti Park but to all of the occupies throughout the country and around the world. What it would look like is quite simply people coming together to ask these questions, and you don’t always get the answer right away, but the answer I think does come from first congregating, and congregating with the spirit of humility and openness and a willingness to learn and to not rush to judgment. The right answers should not be quick. It should be a process, and I think that process is in motion, and it will be ongoing, but it’s started, and it’s a joy to have been a part of the beginning of that process.

Interview by Stacy Lanyon

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