Explorations and Adventures?

November 2 at Occupy Rochester started off a beautiful day. After the arrests on Friday night, our leaders united with organized labor, political groups and even religious groups to put together an impressively diverse march, and finally show ourselves as representing more of the 99% than ever. The march went off perfectly, with no police interference to speak of; even the obnoxious nanny-cam staring down at the park from South Clinton finally left, towed away by a city public works truck a few minutes before the GA started. Calling the march to order! WE ARE THE 99%! WE ARE THE…

Occupy Rochester's lighter side! I'd like to see more of this artivism and street theater, even though I suspect most of the Occupy pictures for the foreseeable future will be of the not-so-thin blue line keeping us away from our first amendment rights and agendas.

In the dark times, will we be singing? Yes, we'll be singing for the dark times! Every new day's dawn brings a song of its own, Waiting to be sung, waiting for the sun! I tried to explore today. I had to, for the group (trying out a new recruit with a car), for me (clearing out my head after last night), for Laura even (to keep me away from those "interminably stupid and self serving Occutards" before I'm lost altogether). It wasn't really the best of days for it, pouring rain and barely making it to 40 degrees, but…

And, just a day after my last post, Occupy Rochester took a huge turn toward the dark reality of what Occupy is in so many other cities: free speech grating against the boundaries of police oppression. While so far there has been no violence here, we have had 30 arrests and counting tonight, after a month without incident. I know I said I would keep this blog apolitical, but I needed a place where I could report and put together the story of what I saw, a bit less fragmented than the #ROCcupy twitter feed but more linear than a…

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…