The Prices Do DC: Occupy DC

Welcome to McPherson Square

Protest and Baseball: The Great American Pasttimes

Walking back and forth on the raised stone ledge of the plaza, the young 20-something tossed the baseball high into the air and, reaching out, snagged it with his glove hand. "Nation under occupation. Democracy before dinner," he called out, again tossing the baseball. "Nation under occupation. Democracy before dinner."

A well-dressed woman approached and stopped. "Thanks for doing this," she said. "My son is with the group occupying Atlanta and we're with you all the way."

"Thank you," replied the baseball tosser, continuing his corner edge stroll as this hour's unofficial greeter for Occupy DC, a solidarity movement which has joined Occupy Wall Street and other encampments across the country and around the world to focus attention on corporate interests that they claim have co-opted our politics and corrupted our economic system.

Actually, there are 2 simultaneous protesting camps set up here in the nation's capital. Occupy DC is grouped at McPherson Square. A few blocks away, Stop the Machine is continuing its 24-hour around-the-clock protest at Freedom Plaza.

At first, the movement was dismissed by conservative politicians, right-wing pundits, industrialists, financiers, and denizens of Wall Street as "thugs" "bums" "hippies," and worse. But quickly the conversation shifted as the public seemed far more in sympathy and support of the Occupy movements than it did of the controllers. Suddenly, the phrase "occupy" was everywhere in the national discussion and the term "the 99 percent and the 1 percent" exploded into the American parlance.

As with any protest, signs are very telling. And even a cursory visit to the sites shows that there is no lack of signs. A sample:

I used to have a job, now I have an occupation
We, the people say human needs, not corporate greed
I saved 10 years for my home. It cost $24,000 to sell it
I am not an angry young hippie. I am an angry businessman
Suma Cum Laud. Unemployed. Still trying. Still hopeful
Democracy is not a spectator sport

Tales, Tidbits, & Traveling Tips:
We have visited the Occupy sites 3 times and I know we will be going back again and again. As the Buffalo Springfield sang in the 60s "there is something happening here, but what it is ain't exactly clear." And while no one knows how this emerging, enlarging occupy everywhere story will turn out, I believe this is democracy in action. There is something quite righteous about these sites. I think that as Americans we forget that this country was founded by common people who would not accept the status quo perpetuated by a ruling elite. Sound familiar? Radicals and rebels all. Somewhere the spirits of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry are smiling. Their great American vision lives on.