G : No! As a 24 year old I expect grown men who are 40 and actually seen how the United States to have evolved, I expect them to practically put their knowledge to use. I'm here to back good ideas. If I come up with one, I'll let you know. Sorry I don't have much political knowledge.
K. S.: Do you have a favorite presidential candidate at this point?
G : No, at this point I think they are all bought out.I think a lot of hands are tied especially when they are accepting money from people where here against. When every candidate has got multiple millions and millions of dollars from these people, I think they are going to what they tell them to do.
Amber (age: 24)
K. S.: Why are you here?
Amber: To protest, maybe get a change. It's the little things I would like to get to happen.
K. S.: What do you hope to accomplish by being here?
A : To see the world open her eyes. see what is going on. Because people look the other way.
K. S.: What changes would you like to see?
A : Probably, definitely for the better. To help. There is a lot about the government that I do agree with but it's the little things like where are they going to put the money for this budget. Why are they so overdrawn? Like they expect us to pay all of our bills, but they can't even balance a checkbook.
Why are there so many homeless people? Why are there so many people that don't have Medicare? They are just on the street dying because they can't afford the right medications.
K. S.: If Government don't have any money, How are they going to pay for all this?
A : This beautiful building (Austin City Hall) right here is made out of copper. Seventeen ($17) million dollars of copper just setting there on that roof. I mean, why can't they just put regular brick or glass on top of the building like all the rest of them? Why is the $17 million just setting there? You know $17 million dollars can feed so many people and help so many people out.
K. S.: Do you have any ideas as to how to accomplish these changes?
A :I figure we should get people that aren't as spoiled. Like if they mess up, if they go to jail they get a slap on the wrist. They can go drink and drive. They next day they are out of jail. Everything's fine, nothing on their record. Their spoiled and they know they are spoiled. They are getting paid all this money to do what? If they can't do their job, then we can't do it for them. So I figure if we pay them like normal people to help everything else and maybe have 2 or three people doing that one job so they can figure out different ways, then it will be okay.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Maurice
Kevin - thanks for posting this. It confirms what I already thought of these people. They are astoundingly naive.
2 - Zingzing
Maurice, did you really get the full picture from this article? Even if Kevin had put up astonishingly articulate and intelligent interview with someone who had workable ideas and a plan that would successfully implement them, that wouldn't show the whole of this movement.
Kevin showed a wide range of povs here, and that's commendable. You, on the other hand, have closed your mind, and that's sad.
3 - Jordan Richardson
Good job, Kevin. You talked to people from different backgrounds and age groups, getting to the heart of the movement without suggesting that this quartet presumes to speak for the whole. Well done.
Maurice, what about the views of "these people" do you find so unsophisticated?
4 - Dr Dreadful
"Naive" is a favourite conservative word. It makes it easy for them to dismiss anything the other side thinks, says or proposes.
5 - Jordan Richardson
I wonder if Maurice would consider these two gents as "naive."
6 - Baronius
I'd go much further than Maurice did in describing these people, but the truth is that everyone sounds stupid when they don't have a chance to prepare a script.
7 - roger nowosielski
Great clip, Jordan.
8 - handyguy
Frank Rich’s take on OWS, both shrill and thought-provoking [as usual]:
The Class War Has Begun
9 - handyguy
It's a large and diverse group. I know Baronius objected to caricatures of the Tea Party a year or two back. Perhaps Maurice did too. So they might want to hold their fire on the quick generalizations about OWS. [But they won't.]
10 - Baronius
Handy, there's one area that I've definitely been staying clear of. There was I think one clip of an OWS protestor saying something anti-Semitic. Some people on the right pounced all over it and claimed that the whole movement was anti-Semitic. That's garbage.
11 - KevinsView
Thanks for the comments. As has been mentioned the group is very divearse. I was disapointed that the one person that sounded most intelligent was full of execuses as to why she was unwilling to step forward and place herself as a candidate. I wish the video I shot of the interviews was better quality to post.
12 - Irene Athena
Baronius, it's encouraging to read your #6 and #10. I'd begun to slide into UTTER despair over the lack of compassion from Right Wingers who hadn't come over from the dark side to Ron Paul* yet.
Tuning into local AM radio to get the weather report on these iffy autumn mornings, I'm forced to listen to talk-show blowhards making the following comments: "we should send the Marines in after them,"
"Send in the military tanks. That's the answer," "What sort of a statement are they trying to make by not taking showers?"
Man, some of these kids are in the hole for thousands of dollars because they followed the urging of the guidance counselors at their public high schools and WENT TO COLLEGE. Now what do they do to pay off that debt? Even if the state paid for their tuition, what do they do with their "free time" as unemployed people? Compose serenades that Corrupt Government and Unethical Corporations can sing to one another?
(Handyguy, I think you need to read #6 again with an eye that is less critical of EVERYTHING Baronius writes.)
*I'm becoming insufferable again, I know.
13 - roger nowosielski
"Man, some of these kids are in the hole for thousands of dollars because they followed the urging of the guidance counselors at their public high schools and WENT TO COLLEGE."
Ia this the only reason why they're there?
14 - roger nowosielski
.... Is ...
Dancing in the Dark ...
15 - Jordan Richardson
24-year-old Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen suffered a fractured skull after police stormed the occupants in Oakland Wednesday.
It's too early to tell if he'll need surgery.
No matter what you stand on these peaceful protests, seeing stuff like this in the "Land of the Free" has to be unnerving.
16 - KevinsView
I went down to see for myself if these people wanted a socialist government, as you can tell from my questions, but in the end couldn't find that liberal of agenda. In fact would say they are more conservative then the Vietnaum era protestors.
17 - roger nowosielski
@15
To prevent shit like that from ever happening again, the OWS must be reinforced by civil disobedience on a mass scale. Refusal to pay any municipal/state taxes would be an excellent place to start. That'd send the right kind of message to police departments across the land and local governments which deploy such tactics.
18 - unoccupier troll
...remember to remember: seditious conspiracy remains on the books in the US
Kevin - did you discuss what working groups your occupiers were involved with or their impressions of the GA process?
19 - roger nowosielski
@8
Rather lengthy, Handy, but good article, provides a bit of the historical context.
What don't you like about Rich's analysis?
BTW, I'll repost the link on the Protest thread.
20 - roger nowosielski
@18
You mean like organizing for non-payment of taxes?
21 - Cindy
Good video, Jordan. Thanks for posting it.
22 - Cindy
Have you noticed that talk of general strike has been in the air as a response to the gov't attacks on protesters and evictions of occupiers and unoccupiers?
Well, today #generalstrike is trending on twitter.
23 - roger nowosielski
Of course, but why wait?
Today's as good a day as any.
Except for Jordan and our little clique, the rest of BC denizens somehow don't appear overly enthused.
24 - t
......'remember remember the 27th of October' doesn't sound quite right
25 - roger nowosielski
Which of these aren't to your liking?