Occupy L.A.: Reflections of a Newbie Occupier (Blog)

2012. According to some, this is the year the Mayans predicted an apocalypse…an End of Days perhaps. To others, this is the year that brings about a “New Age.” Personally, I feel it’s the latter and that it has already started. 

In December 2010, a young unemployed college graduate in Tunisia, Mohamed Bouazizi, set fire to himself in protest after the police confiscated the produce he was selling from his stall. With his passing came the passing of winter and the outrage that later ensued led to the subsequent blooming of the Arab Spring of 2011.  He became the flash-point that led to an incredible year of pro-democracy uprisings sprouting across the Middle East, like the wildflowers in our local deserts.  Mr. Bouazizi sent another wave of change rippling across the globe very much like the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk who nearly 5 decades earlier burned himself to death to protest the repressive government in early 1960’s Vietnam.

I watched in awe, the non-violent struggle of so many in the Middle East as they resisted the often violent and deadly response from their oppressors.  Yet, despite continued threats and displays of violence against them, they held their post.  Neither batons, water cannons, gas nor bullets stood a chance against the sacrifices so many people, unified, were prepared to make.  Their solidarity proved that an idea can overcome the harshness of their reality

These winds of change arrived on our shores when nearly 1,000 people descended upon the financial district of New York City one fateful day in September 2011 to start what has now become the Occupy Movement and with it, the rebirth of an idea. I see this as a mechanism to reinstate the values and principles that our great nation was built upon when originally declared nearly 240 years ago and woven once again into the fabric of the Declaration of the New York City General Assembly at Occupy Wall Street.

Autumn 2011 brought me and my family to the front lines of the Occupy Movement here in Los Angeles when my children asked what was going on at City Hall while riding our bicycles on First Street during CicLAvia. What was all the noise? Why were people camping…in the middle of the city? This was my opportunity to share with my children that what was happening was an example of what this great nation we are fortunate to live in has to offer…our various freedoms, particularly that of expression. 

I became more interested in the happenings of the Movement and was in attendance in the days leading to and on the day of the eviction from City Hall.  I learned, firsthand, that there was more to the Movement than what the Mainstream Media was depicting as a circus of foul smelling, pot smoking, drum beating drop-outs and slackers. I found the encampment full of men and women of all walks – Students, Homemakers, Unemployed and Employed alike.  Boomers, Generations X, Y and Z, – all sharing the same idea. Interested in looking for ways to participate I was there to observe the Eviction and I’ve since become involved with the Occupy Media Committee and their Occupied Los Angeles Times assisting with Spanish translations and other assorted tasks.

I hope that my children come to understand that what I am trying doing now, as a part of the Occupy Movement, is to make a difference in the quality of all lives, not just ours.  To show them the importance of community and supporting one another in the struggles we share; to be persons of high moral character and integrity; to speak up and act out, non-violently, when they observe injustices and corruption – just as our Declaration of Independence states:

... that whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness…

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” should be pursued and enjoyed by all and not just the powerful and the privileged. We need to remind our elected officials that they are “public servants,” elected by us, to represent us – to be held accountable.  We are to remind them that we are listening to them as much as we want them to listen to us.

New Years often bring new resolutions. Sure I wouldn’t mind shedding a few unwanted pounds and maybe change some bad habits.  But, today, as I bask in the warm sun of another Los Angeles winter day, I remember trying to make sense of the meaning of “Solidarnosc” in 1980’s Poland and how I had the opportunity to travel abroad where, unknown at the time, I stood in Moscow at the base of the Russian Parliament building one year before the Iron Curtain began unraveling the following Summer of 1991.

Today, I looked to the east at the sun rising over another beautiful day, towards Los Angeles City Hall, towards New York City, Cairo, Tunis and to Moscow where the cold winds from the Siberian steppes have been singing a new song in recent weeks; two words, “Мы существуем! (My sushchestvuem!)” “We Exist!”

My resolution? To be a part of this Movement.  “I Exist!” What’s your resolution?

If you'd like to read the OCCUPIED Los Angeles Times, please click here.
If you'd like to read more about Occupy Los Angeles, please click here.
If you'd like to read more about Occupy Wall Street, please click here