II have a long history of Activism. Getting my teeth cut on it in the Gay Rights movement of the 1970s-1980s. I was there at the White Night Riots, a friend and I were caught in a famous picture dancing on a burning police car, (of course now I can't find the picture!)
Back then I was a young run away living in the home of a now famous Gay Movie Historian, Lito Russo. A budding writer I was lucky enough to have as my mentor Randy Shlitz of the San Francisco chronicle, who taught me many things about cameras, ("The best camera is the one you can carry with you always", and I am NEVER without my camera!) and writing, and was a Randy was a dear friend dear friend that shaped my life! He was an activist, but he and I disagreed on direct action. Randy was old school, consensus building, we were "We're here, We're Queer, Get Used to it!" In your face direct action activism, which Randy felt pissed more people off than made them sensitive to our cause!
It was a different time back then, when Gay bars were little wholes in the wall in side streets with secret knocks. The Class Coffin, I mean Twin Peaks at the corner of Castro and Market made a splash by being the first Gay Bar to have plate glass windows. No longer were Gay Men huddling in dark and dank bars, we were out and were open about what we wanted, FREE LOVE!, I mean Equality! The Gay Scene if you ask me revolved around the Bath House scene of which there were many in SF. That was until then Mayor Diana Fienstien closed them down due to the AIDS Pandemic. The Gay Community took a big hit them, as so many discussion and planning took part in the common areas of the Bath Houses back then. But the movement would not be stopped, the meetings and organization meetings moved to the Women's Building and coffee shops in the 80's and 90's. But, it should be noted that we DID change the world, we changed the way that drugs got approved in America creating a fast track for drugs dealing with the terminally ill. ACT UP did in fact change the world, and ACT UP/SF Treatment issues was a big part of it.
Yes I was there that night of the White Riots, I was active withg Act Up and Queer Nation through the late 80's and 90's. Being in the Army, and having contracted AIDS through my military service I was very opposed to many of Bush's policies, the least of these were his War in the middle east. Yes I took part and help organize the Gulf War Protests in the First Gulf War, even though I was still active duty. Organize is a general term, the Gulf War Protest at that time became very organic with people just getting out of their cars and joining in. People marched for days on end, aimlessly walking around the city, more in shock than in protest.
We were so young then and totally believed that we could and would change the world, we have no idea that that the world would change us! I remember going out to Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Laboratory with my best friend Anne and her mother to protest there Marching around the Lab and blockading it for days. Anne is a fine example of how the world has changed us. Anne is now living in the South, and is as Red as they come, recently sent me a bumper sticker that says "If Liberals didn't have double standards they would have no standards at all!"
We so don't see eye to eye on politics any more that we never discuss them!
So that brings us to last September, September a year ago I was knee deep in the Occupy movement. First in NYC where a photographer friend was arrested on a bridge taking pictures and spent 3 days in Jail. At that time I knew this "Occupy Movement" was something different and I wanted to be a part of it. I work with OWS till I got word that a new Occupy/SF was starting up, so I jumped on a plane and headed home to take part. Me and my Camera were there when the Occupy/San Francisco movement got started. I was out there everyday taking pictures, and holding my Veterans for Peace sign "How is that War Economy Treating You?" sign in front of the SF Federal Reserve Bank. From Sept 23rd till March 30th I was there, from 6am till 10pm.. Like clock work!
I was there when the first tent when up in Justin Herman Plaza:
I walked around Justin Herman Plaza every day and night with the city officials logging the violations and helping to get people to address them.
There were lots of meetings, a General assembly every night and multiple focus groups meeting during the day! The Camp and the Protest site were a buzz of activity back them!
Days started early and ran late! There was always something to do, all you had to do back then was jump in, ask what needed to be done and apply yourself and one was in the middle of it. It was organized confusion, no bickering, no authority just a common need to change the world and make a point, some point, your point, my point, who cares, lets just make one! There were as manhy resons for being on the side walk as there were people on the side walk. The lack of focus was our strenth, you had a sound bite, and so did I. I filmed over 3000 people at protests explaining why they were there, (rights and video footage bought up, and a book and movie are being produced from my 45 second clips of why people were there!)
I rememebr the Ron Paul supporters yelling from our lines, and I had to make a SUPPORT RU PAUL sign! Left Right, Middle we were all Frustrated, and we were all there.
There were protests, big protests, both here and in Oakland.
People had something on their mind, something to express, something to do!
And there were the meetings where people tried there hand at herding cats. Of course the General Assembly could and would say anything that it wanted, but that did not effect the camp, which functioned as its own enity and no one from camp attended the General Assembly, or the Protest Site which also functioned as its own enity and didn't attend the General Assembly having its own at the protest site.
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PROCESS, THAT SOMETHING WE DO TO OUR HAIR!
Then there were the codifiers and the disruptors, and the people that needed to make order out of this wonderfully disorganization functioning chaos. People that needed meaning, not doing. People that just couldn't understand that the system was so fucked up and so broken that it needed a 1,000 different points of view to try, because we have no idea how to fixm the system, just that it is broken, the more ideas the more perspectives the better, is what I say!
Then in SF as the year wore on Focus was lost. The undesirable elemenents moved in, and in numbers! There were issues with donations disappearing, with supplies going unaccounted for, and many other issues that I just won't address in public.
Gangs from the Wharf area moved in and started to run the camp, it was much more common in these last days of the camp to see crack pipes and Meth Pipes being passed around circles as joints. As i walked through camp I was opten threatened for snapping pictures, it really degenerated into a gang run hokmeless encampment not a protest. Drugs and other illegal activities were rampant. People were not attending the meetings or the protest marches, they would not leave their homes and drugs. And finally the City Moved in to clean-up the mess! Blessed Be.
The protest site, havinbg had been autonomous for a long time stayed, and continued to do the fight and work of the occupy movement. Mostly older people, they started tro call themselves Occupy Wall Street West to seperate themselves from the campers and trouble makers who were calling themselves Occupy San Francisco.
Even after the clean-up Occupy had spome victories, like the Port of Oakland Closure
Which disrupted business as usual for a day, but more importantly proved that we could field enough people to close down a 7.5 mile port of Oakland. Hundreds of thousands of people partied at the Port till the wee hours of the morning.
By March I had enough, The San Francisco movement had lost focus, I had a new boy friend and started a new project doing City Guide Tours with my boyfriend. It had gotten too rough and too seedy for my taste and was no longer about changing the world, so I moved on.
WHERE IS SHE NOW?
Sher became the spokesperson of Occupy/SF, it Face and its cheerleader. If any one person personified what Occupy/SF was about and it ideals she was it, I don't even know her name, but where is she now?
Now I have moved out of the area, and missed the one year anniversary, but am enjoying my quiet new life up in Chico where I have started the Bread Project.