Last Thursday I headed down to Wall Street to see exactly what was going on down there with all the protests. I was nervous; expecting to run into a bunch of crazy hippies and far-out stoners looking for an excuse to get together. What I found was a very tightly run, organized group made up of everyone from families to veterans, grandmothers to college students, professionals to professors such as Cornell West. The plan was to get interviews and footage and make a somewhat of a news piece about the movement. However, I was so overtaken by all the interesting people I was meeting and everything going on, that it didn’t take long for me to get just as involved in the process as everyone else.
It was around 3:15 p.m. when I arrived. I wasn’t sure where to go when I came up from the subway but was instantly greeted by a guy who led me to scene. There were nearly 500 people in Zucconi Park on this weekday afternoon, but all eyes were on Cornell West. He gave a statement to press with a large crowd around him. It was interesting but I wanted to find some people that I actually could have a personal conversation with. There was a group of older women called Grandmas for Peace. They explained that they were there because they were worried about their grandchildren becoming trapped in an economically dysfunctional world.
Before I could even finish my interviews with the kind ladies I noticed a gathering at the front of the park. Apparently, I had gotten there just in time for one of their daily marches. Unfortunately, the sky was growing dark and a hint of rain was in the air. A couple of the organizers were telling the crowd how to keep it peaceful: no masks, stay with the group, basically, don’t do anything stupid. As we began our circle around the Wall Street area, the clouds let loose. I didn’t have a poncho or umbrella like the others, and it didn’t matter to me. This is what democracy looks like I thought, and that’s exactly what we chanted.
We marched for about a half hour, heavily protected ( or surveillenced) by police officers. People took pictures of us and we took pictures of them. Not knowingly, I became one of the chant leaders, keeping the crowd going. For many this is a new and unfamiliar outlet. To some its their first time marching in a protest so everyone needs a little motivation and guidance. And for others, even if they were scared to open their mouths they knew what drove them to be there that day.
When we finally got back to the park, the sun came back out, and the crowd had grown about 200 people stronger. People were still cheering so I headed to a quieter to ask people some questions. What made you come here today? Why is this so important to you? What are you trying to accomplish? The answers were all different but similar in ideology. If their votes weren’t going to be listened to, then maybe their raw presence would.
In the end, my experience made me a supporter of this movement. While there are still many skeptics and naysayers, the entire force of these people is getting bigger every day. There’s something wrong and they’re not just going to sit around and wait for something to happen. They want to make something happen. I want to make something happen. Instead of pointing our fingers at just the corporations or just the government, they are pointing their fingers at both sides, and ourselves as well. When things aren’t going well, they don’t want to pretend to ignore it; they want to do something about it.
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