K. S.: Do you have any aspirations about running for city council or maybe another public office?
A : No. I feel it is to corrupted right now. Until they get better people I won't stand for it.
K. S.: If you feel they need better people, why not run and maybe you can be one of those better people?
A : It's kind like I would be the little stick in the river. Like a little stick is not going to do much in the river, but if you get a bunch of sticks then a bunch of things will happen.
K. S.: But doesn't it start with one person?
A : It does, but you have to have rain drops to get the river.
K. S.: Do you have a favorite presidential candidate?
A : No. Let's face it, I agree with some of these people. However, many of these people seem to be protesting only because it's something to do. Most, I won't say all, seem to only be protesting just to complain. They don't seem to have any ideas to correct the problems that they see. Most even don't appear to be willing to even put themselves out as the agent of change that they so desperately seek. Sadly that is most Americans though. We all want to complain and whine about how terrible everything is, but we won't rise up to make those changes that we want. I am sadden, because outwardly they seem to be what we needed in this world, but unfortunately they don't appear to have any ideas to fix what they perceive to be broken any more then the rest of us.
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?