It’s been over a month now since the first Occupiers set up their tents and dreams in Zuccotti Park, and 20 days since our daily gatherings at Liberty Pole began. I took some heat personally for my first photos here — most painfully from Laura, who echoed the view of the older conservative generation, that the best thing to do about the Occupy movement is to tell them to grow up, get real jobs, and leave the damned park. So with that moral support to rely on, I’ve been spending more and more time AT the Occupy meetings, with an entire community of people who think like me. Laura calls it my Woodstock of mistakes, my quest for a moment in the sun. It certainly has been sunny, but not for a chance to get attention (observe, for one, that I choose to stay behind the camera!), rather for the awakening and newly living thoughts of grass roots change, and something to believe in. So far we in Rochester have stayed somehow clear of the infighting between Occupy sects, and the crushing opposition from government and police; we really do have something kind of resembling an ideological utopia, an anti-school to learn about the ways of the world. We aren’t just here to change the world — we’re here to change ourselves, we’re here because it’s the gathering of our generation.
Anyone who is interested in checking this out and being a part of a growing movement, come join in! We are at Liberty Pole from 4-6pm on weekdays, also Thursdays until 8:30 and Mondays noon-2pm.
Lately we’ve been expanding from protest signs and chants into music and street theater too
