(for info on Occupy VT/Occupy Brattleboro, click here)
What you seek is seeking you.
~Rumi
Right now, I’m occupying my bed–on day 3 with the flu. How about you? Are you in NYC? Or heading there? Or gathering somewhere else? Or avoiding it altogether?
As a latent activist, I must admit that I’m afraid of outrage. The idea of gathering with an angry mob in a crowded city doesn’t attract me. Except for the energy.
I feel the energy. I’m attracted to the spirit of “occupying together”–only I don’t know what we’re occupying.
Do you?
Certainly anger and outrage aren’t places I want to occupy. Neither is hatred or blame. But perhaps these are necessary starting places–stepping stones to something else. It’s the “something else” I want to occupy.
So, to all my forerunners out there–thank you. Thank you for your passion and your courage and your commitment–and even your outrage. Thank you for enduring the sleeping bags, and the pepper spray and the mocking. And know this–as you move from #OccupyWallStreet to #OccupyTogether, I’ll be joining you. And I’ll bring my sons.
For what I want to occupy is a place that doesn’t focus on what’s wrong and who’s to blame, but what’s right and how to make it so–for everyone–even my husband’s second cousin on Wall Street.
Kelly Salasin, Marlboro, Vermont
For more information on joining the movement, click below:
Occupy Brattleboro /Occupy Vermont
This Vermont Life 
Yes, we must occupy our heart first. Once you are there, seeing others experiences as if they were your own, you see that something is wrong in the way our present society operates. So, this is the reason why the people (including all demographics) are occupying their cities and town squares across the globe. People what to participate in the decision making process (Democracy) to create a better Society. It is important that when we occupy anything looking for positive change that we remain Peaceful “non-violent”.
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WHY I OCCUPY
A hungry child continues to cry…
That is why I Occupy
The killing drones continue to fly…
That is why I Occupy
The Pentagon still continues to lie…
That is why I Occupy
45,000 uninsured continue to die…
That is why I Occupy
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Rosemarie Jackowski
Bennington, VT
Phone 802.447.0868
E-mail dissent@sover.net
Rosemarie is 'The Vermont Peace Grandma' and author of BANNED IN VERMONT
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I’m not sure “angry mob” is a fair characterization of a great many (I daresay the majority) of the folks down at Zuccotti park. While most *are* angry about our country’s current situation, they’re channeling that anger in some very positive, I would even say beautiful ways. Even when a rogue cop sprayed innocent young women in the face with pepper spray, they didn’t respond with anger because they knew that was what the police wanted. To quote one protester “They wanted a riot. They can deal with a riot. They cannot deal with non-violent protesters with cameras”. When Rome’s protests got out of control and destructive the other day, it was Occupy Wall Street that condemned their actions. The OWS people–people from all walks of life and all ages–are interested in changing a system at its foundation, and breaking new ground. Moving deeper, one must see that any anger they feel arises from a place of deep love and compassion for all of humanity. Their ability to organize and work together effectively draws from that same well.
They seem to be creating a micro-model on site of what good, representative government should look like. To hear the chatter among alternative media, academia, and even now among the mainstream media, they are succeeding in the first steps of this process (turning the public eye on the movement). They could not do that if all they were working with was anger, hatred and blame. To suggest they are is to sell the movement short, which I’m sure you wouldn’t want to do. Here is an interesting article that gives a closer view of some of what is happening in zuccotti park, now re-named by the protesters “Liberty Plaza”.
Peace
http://www.alternet.org/occupywallst/152684/why_corporate_elites_should_be_petrified_of_occupy_wall_street/?page=5
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