In March, I took a major fall. In May, I started going to downtown LA for therapy every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I took the bus because parking and gas would have made this a $300 a month bill. The bus and walking between Broadway and Los Angeles Street has been an eye opening experience.
I have not written before because I could not stand all the pie fights. Interestingly, OWS has seems to have damped them down.
I never had any intention of doing more than a small march on the Saturday they were calling the great surge. The LAPD gave it between 10 and 15 thousand. I came Wednesday just to check things out so I would not have to deal with chaos on Saturday. Friday night, I spent my first night. I believe I am the oldest resident there; I am a somewhat damaged 67.
Below is my story and my perceptions of Occupy LA.
The first day was Wednesday, October 12, 2011. My lasting impression was finding a group of older, white haired women sitting on the steps of the LA City Hall and taking pictures of the passing crowd. They looked like me so I joined them. I assumed that like me they had done this in the past and they wanted to see for themselves what was the same and what was different.
They ask me why I was there and I told them in great detail while someone did a video. I am quite sure that video never saw the light of day. It was a while before I realized that they were tea baggers and they were there to prove that this was just a rerun of free sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Any thing different surprised them but they did not record what they were not seeking.
I was so appalled by their behavior and by the fact that they were my peer group, I returned the next day.
Thursday, I did my first GA or general assembly meeting. It was so chaotic that I did not really get who was trying to do what and for what reason. Walking around in the late afternoon, I continued to observe people who were coming to take pictures of people like they were visiting a zoo. It was that attitude that captured my attention. It was that attitude that made me committ to staying. While I know it sounds egotistical, I know I bring a certain gravitas with my presence.
I have made a committment to be reasonably well dressed, exceptionally clean, and above all, gracious.
Friday, I buy a ten by ten by six foot high tent, a small pad to sleep on, and a sleeping bag. I spend my first night. At the GA meeting I hear the first arguments trying to agree to passing things with either a 95% or 90% concensus. Nothing else has really registered with me but this issue. I am incredulous. I have said nothing but I have done a lot of listening about all of this.
I am up most of the night thinking about this because I am too cold and uncomfortable to really sleep and the drumming is until dawn. Then everything falls into exhausted quiet until about 9:30 in the morning. There is no way I can march. I go home to take a bath and get stuff for the night before seeing my doctor. I stop on the way and buy a cot and more bed clothes. My doctor's nurse laugh's at my 99% tee shirt and thinks I have come a bit undone to be doing this.
I have had three days to do some real thinking about then and now. Then the peace movement was almost entirely male lead. As it should have been. We were all aware that it was the young men being drafted, fighting and dying. It was their cause first and foremost. But, I am also aware from having been there, why the women's movement came off of it. Around 1972, women walked away in droves and without a word. Essentially, the men did all the talking and bonding and the women did all the work. Three days of walking around showed the same patterns developing.
My generation was the first to have women in college in substantial numbers but that was almost 50 years ago. I also felt that some of the young men were somewhat bullying about keeping the microphones. We have male moderators, and male stackers, and many male speakers and really very few women saying anything. I got up and ranted about it. To my surprise it was well received. I have not spoken in public in over a decade. Later, several young women came up and thanked me and a few even kissed me. I came to believe that I could make a difference. That means making a sustainable home here if at all possible. I allot a $500 budget to do this.
I buy folding chairs and tables, tarps, more padding, a rug. More appropriate clothes, ways of caring and containing food. It is my commitment to totally support myself and not draw on community resources and leave them for others. I also cannot eat most of this food. It is by no means quality food but sustaining for a lot of people--real soup kitchen eating.
The place is getting really piggy and the public has a right to be very unhappy about it. I buy and donate $50 worth of brooms, dust bins, and pooper scoopers. I do personally consider it irresponsible to bring dogs and not be prepared to pick up after them in this situation. I say nothing I just give them to the donation center for the sanitation crew.
One of the things I observe about the marches and stuff is how retread it is. Using slogans, songs, and gestures from the 70s is not good. OSW has to show it is a generation of solutions seekers by expressing their creativity.
I present this chant before the GA:
What have we got?
A duty.
What for?
A decent deal.
Who for?
Decent people.
What do we want?
A decent deal for decent people.
When do we want it?
Now, Now, Now.
They chanted it enthusiastically at the time and seemed to enjoy it. But it did not get used so therefore, it did not get sold. I do not know what it takes to sell it. I have decided to have it copied and pass it around. My time seems to be consumed by chaos.
Sunday, I try to find some women I have connected with to see if we can join forces and build a small stand within the community. I connect with a 60 year old real estate woman who is now homeless. Her story is there but for the grace of god go I........
She is totally homeless and recently released from a psychiactric for attempted suicide. She is hyper and taking enough psycho tropic drugs to knock out an elephant. She received no therapy but given a safe place to calm down for two weeks and try and get some drugs to work on her. That is today's par for the course. She is situationally depressed.
She used to work and make good money doing real estate appraisals. She worked for a big brokerage firm whose name we would all recognize. When she refused to turn in requested appraisals for outrageous fees, she was summarily fired. At her age, no more jobs and she goes through her savings, eventually loosing everything. The brokerage firm is now in trouble and has played out its cards and her appraisals for which she was fired are now considered right on again and she hopes to file a law suit. Rather or not she can hold herself together is questionable.
Not knowing her before, I cannot say how bad she is now compared to then. She is a very difficult person now. I see her as highly over compensating for her fragility and fear of being out on the streets. Right now she has a tent on the City Hall lawn and is relatively safe. But I had to remove her from my space because she put her chest right up against mine and was yelling directly in my face about me taking her boy friend home to fuck him. He is a guy I hired to help and he is 25 years younger than I and the thought never entered my head. These types of problems are everywhere. Living in a tent city is not in any way a picnic. It is going where many have never gone before.
I am familiar with the Zeigeist Movement and if we were given a brand new and perfect city in a resource sustainable economy, we would still fail because we do not know how to live that cooperatively. It is not just the movement, it is being the process that is so difficult.
It is understanding this --- that is most important. This is an experiment in so many ways. LA is fortunate. We really have been granted a chance. The city council and the board of supervisors, and ironically, the police all seem to get this. Those who have felt the city, know the underclass of LA has been hurting for almost a dozen years and they are a powder keg. Closing down Occupy LA, would spark that blaze. There is an awareness of how bad a small fire can go to conflagation instantly. We have already had more than enough of those in the last ten years.
The Sunday night meeting has more women speakers and the men have really reached out to women who want to speak. So there is listening and response. A good thing. We soon have women stackers.
One of the things age teaches you, especially as a teacher. You must be the change you want to see and you must do and model what needs to be done. I spend from ten pm to 1 am sweeping the Spring Street block and cleaning the two bus waiting stations there. I am thanked a lot. I also clean the disabled portapotty. I am thanked even more. It takes about five days before more and more people begin to clean up the side walks etc. For guys with upper body strength, it is really not a big deal. For me sweeping one block of 15 foot side walks was a killer. Monday morning I cannot get up until 11 and have to use the portapotty which can't be done until I clean it. Everything aches.
The good thing--all the patrolling police now know me. And on a whole we have made great progress in keeping the premises better.
This is the end of the first five days.