Occupy Wall Street

 

Several weeks ago, the Arab Spring turned into the East Coast Autumn when Occupy Wall Street, a growing group of young people (Marash Girl saw no person over 40), staged an ongoing sit-in at a park bordering the Nasdaq, a private park pivately owned, a private park from which (according to one of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators) the sitters could not be ousted until the owner said the word.  Last night, a member of the Community Board for Manhattan's Financial District invited Marash Girl to join him as he wished to observe first hand the reality of Occupy Wall Street.  They found Occupy Wall Street occupying Broadway's Zuccotti Park. Full to the brim with peaceful folk chatting, sometimes chanting, mostly shy to talk to cameras, the park was peopled with, no, not the professional, seasoned demonstrators of the sixties, but rather their peaceful children and grandchildren, who are living an injustice, an inequity, and want it corrected. 

Despite the peaceful character of the Occupy Wall Street sit-in, there was a phalanx of police vehicles parked along Liberty Street, protecting One Liberty Plaza, home to Nasdaq and numerous international banks.  As well, there were a dozen foot patrol wandering along the perimeter of Zuccotti Park (seemingly there to protect the demonstrators).

Marash Girl stopped to talk to one of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators. He was not eloquent, but he made his point. Marash Girl asked the young man from Minneapolis, Minnesota, why he was there, and he said that he was there to call attention to the injustice of Wall Street's billions while growing numbers of Americans had no work, to the injustice of allowing greed to destroy the once vibrant economy of the United States.  When Marash Girl asked him whether he had a solution to the problem, he said that he was there to create awareness; that awareness had to come before a solution. 

Marash Girl had arrived at the site several hours after the down pour which had not dampened the spirits of the sitters.  The Occupy Wall Street participants were humble, concerned, and quiet.  But not all.  Upon interviewing an employee of Nasdaq, Marash Girl learned that Nasdaq had locked off the once open entrance to their building bordering the park after an attempt to enter by Occupy Wall Street, and had apparently experienced two attempts to break into their  computer network; fortunately for all (including the peaceful Occupy Wall Street demonstrators), the attempted internet invasion was discovered and destroyed before it entered the Nasdaq system.  Perhaps this attempt had nothing to do with the demonstrators, but was done by Wall Street supporters to discredit the sit-in for discrediting them!

Today, returning after a long day's work, Marash Girl met a young man on the elevator, a student at NYU, who said that the police had just been in his classroom recommending that students stay away from the protest, as there would be arrests made and the New York City police did not want to have to arrest NYU students.  Tired and hot from a long day's work, presumably on Wall Street, the only other occupant of the elevator commented, "What the hell!  We're just trying to make a living!"  Marash Girl has to assume that her awareness had not yet been raised.

Photos by Marash Girl