Photo: Stacy Lanyon
I heard about Occupy originally when I was in Oregon. There
were discussions with certain groups like the Yes Men. They were saying there was going to
be a group of people protesting Wall Street, and that intrigued me, so instead
of leaving Oregon at a later time, I came in August purposely to come toward
the action in September. The reason I came to Occupy is basically because I
wanted to see change. I was kind of behind the scenes
during the planning meetings. I showed up in late August, but I wasn’t
participating. I was more of a spectator, basically getting information for
myself to see if this was actually happening the way that was discussed. I was there on the first day of September 17th. I felt a huge amount of energy in the park. It was really magical
because there were so many people from all walks of life coming together. It
was not that huge in the beginning. When we started having the meetings, it showed potential that it could actually be something bigger than it
was in the beginning.
At first, I was just a spectator. I showed up every day for
about two weeks, maybe even longer, maybe three, just gathering information and
writing it up on my blog, taking photos and documenting the event. I
wasn’t sure if I was going to participate because the group that I joined was a group outside of Occupy. They were a contingent of a flash mob. They were going to
demonstrate, but my contingent decided
not to because they were afraid of being arrested. The first
working group I was going to participate in was secured. I was going to become
a medic, but they had too many people. I ended up joining a bunch of groups. I did site
security. I started working in Comfort. I
started working in one of the offices at SIS.
SIS stands for Shipping, Inventory and Stock. We were basically the location where we had the clothes, the tents, the sleeping bags, and other material like food that was non-perishable. We had about five people going there every morning from 8AM to 7PM and sorting the clothes that came. We were stocking it and cataloging every single thing that came in. We also handled the mail that was coming in. Some of the letters had checks. We documented the amount of money then gave it to the accounting people. The letters were stating that they themselves couldn’t be there, but that they were showing solidarity and support. They were really beautiful letters. It was just non-stop magical letters, just so breathtaking and spectacular that you were elevated as an individual while you were reading these special letters that people took the time to write.
I was doing media on the side. I got more involved later on, after the eviction—livestream and blogging. The beginning of Occupy was really magical and spectacular. There was a lot potential. It grew a lot of activists who had no voice in the beginning. That slowly happened in a very organic way. The speakers who had never spoken in their life started organizing and doing actions themselves, and that was really beautiful. All of the bad things that occurred in Occupy was because a lot of people can’t break the cycle created by the system. They have been brainwashed since they were a child, so it’s going to take time to evolve from that. In the time since Occupy began, we have changed so much within ourselves, as well as the outside world.
It’s so important because our future is at stake. Our world is at stake. We’re being brainwashed and oppressed by these hierarchies. It’s important because we have to go on. We don’t want to be extinct. To prevent that, we have to inform ourselves of what is happening around us. We can't just sit back and watch it burn. We need to put out the fire by coming together in communities and building better structure, so each individual can self-sustain themselves, meanwhile helping one another at the same time. We wouldn't really need governors and police if we actually came and took it upon ourselves to help the individuals around us who are suffering or in a bad predicament.
One thing that’s wrong with the world is our view of people who are hardworking individuals, and I’m not talking about the people who are sitting in their offices giving orders to the individuals. I’m talking about the person that’s putting the wheel onto the car. That’s a person who’s actually working. Another example is the people making our food. Somehow that individual is not getting paid enough to survive and feed his family. The corporate people are making more money, and they’re spending a lot of their time trying to figure out how they can pay the person working less. Another thing is that our healthcare system is basically shot. It’s another horrible system where people can’t afford it. Another thing is the banks not being accountable for their thievery and stock exchange mischief, where they’re basically gambling our money away. They lost a ton of money that was ours, and the government bailed them out.
The world I want to see is people coming together, communities helping other communities, countries helping each other, the wars disappearing. I want to see the destruction of the weapons and material that can be used for mass destruction. I want a world with better education with learning material that is actually necessary in society. Every school should have a garden. We should be teaching the kids about building a better community, so that we can sustain ourselves. We should be building more solar and wind power. It’s insane how we live. We do these things without understanding the reasoning or the effects it will have. If we start re-educating ourselves from the beginning, when we’re children, then we can have a better society. There are certain things that are not necessary. We don’t need no guns. We don’t need no blades, and we don’t need gas. There are other more efficient ways to use our machines. I want people to acknowledge each other more and be more compassionate and understanding. If you see a person suffering, you don’t walk away from them.
SIS stands for Shipping, Inventory and Stock. We were basically the location where we had the clothes, the tents, the sleeping bags, and other material like food that was non-perishable. We had about five people going there every morning from 8AM to 7PM and sorting the clothes that came. We were stocking it and cataloging every single thing that came in. We also handled the mail that was coming in. Some of the letters had checks. We documented the amount of money then gave it to the accounting people. The letters were stating that they themselves couldn’t be there, but that they were showing solidarity and support. They were really beautiful letters. It was just non-stop magical letters, just so breathtaking and spectacular that you were elevated as an individual while you were reading these special letters that people took the time to write.
I was doing media on the side. I got more involved later on, after the eviction—livestream and blogging. The beginning of Occupy was really magical and spectacular. There was a lot potential. It grew a lot of activists who had no voice in the beginning. That slowly happened in a very organic way. The speakers who had never spoken in their life started organizing and doing actions themselves, and that was really beautiful. All of the bad things that occurred in Occupy was because a lot of people can’t break the cycle created by the system. They have been brainwashed since they were a child, so it’s going to take time to evolve from that. In the time since Occupy began, we have changed so much within ourselves, as well as the outside world.
It’s so important because our future is at stake. Our world is at stake. We’re being brainwashed and oppressed by these hierarchies. It’s important because we have to go on. We don’t want to be extinct. To prevent that, we have to inform ourselves of what is happening around us. We can't just sit back and watch it burn. We need to put out the fire by coming together in communities and building better structure, so each individual can self-sustain themselves, meanwhile helping one another at the same time. We wouldn't really need governors and police if we actually came and took it upon ourselves to help the individuals around us who are suffering or in a bad predicament.
One thing that’s wrong with the world is our view of people who are hardworking individuals, and I’m not talking about the people who are sitting in their offices giving orders to the individuals. I’m talking about the person that’s putting the wheel onto the car. That’s a person who’s actually working. Another example is the people making our food. Somehow that individual is not getting paid enough to survive and feed his family. The corporate people are making more money, and they’re spending a lot of their time trying to figure out how they can pay the person working less. Another thing is that our healthcare system is basically shot. It’s another horrible system where people can’t afford it. Another thing is the banks not being accountable for their thievery and stock exchange mischief, where they’re basically gambling our money away. They lost a ton of money that was ours, and the government bailed them out.
The world I want to see is people coming together, communities helping other communities, countries helping each other, the wars disappearing. I want to see the destruction of the weapons and material that can be used for mass destruction. I want a world with better education with learning material that is actually necessary in society. Every school should have a garden. We should be teaching the kids about building a better community, so that we can sustain ourselves. We should be building more solar and wind power. It’s insane how we live. We do these things without understanding the reasoning or the effects it will have. If we start re-educating ourselves from the beginning, when we’re children, then we can have a better society. There are certain things that are not necessary. We don’t need no guns. We don’t need no blades, and we don’t need gas. There are other more efficient ways to use our machines. I want people to acknowledge each other more and be more compassionate and understanding. If you see a person suffering, you don’t walk away from them.
In the future, I think that empty parking lots will be filled with hydroponic
farms. Abandoned buildings will be given back to the community, so homeless
people don’t have to live on the streets. Con Ed wouldn’t even exist because we’d
be running our own systems with clean energy. It would be just a magical world.
It’s happening now in very small pockets of the world. If they can do it, we can
build that on a larger scale with people just helping one another. In
Palestine, there are Israelis working with Palestinians in little pockets. I lived there for two and a half years. In these pockets, they’re working together to build a better world. They
love one another. They take care of each other. If we establish those
environments, we’ll see that happen. It’s already happening on a smaller scale.
I think more technology will arise. I think it will open the world up to more
imagination. That inner part of us, our soul will be growing with love and
compassion. A lot more people will be happy. Instead of cutting one another off
when they’re speaking, we’ll let each other speak. It will just be a better vibe
and a better energy. I think people will be more zen.
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/