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8B Wednesday November 2,2011 The Statement

the
statement
NOVEMBER 2, 2011

OCCUPY
From Page 5B
it to his hoodie. It read: "DANGER:
EDUCATED BLACK MAN."
Rick turned out to be a great addi-
tion to the group. He was humor-
ous, outgoing, intense and full of
great quotes, and he even offered to
ride to a nearby corner store to get
food and gave me a quick tour of the
park when Iasked him where to get
water.
"There's the medical tent, the
pantry, buffet, water jugs, Wi-Fi
antenna and the library," he said.
Restrooms were a notable omis-
sion. Rick tells me Porta-Potties
are prohibited in the park so people
have to go to Burger King on the
park's west side, or McDonald's to
the east.
Crinkling my nose, I asked him
about the smell of pot that was still
lingering around the park.
"It usually makes its way around,
man."
On cue, Ralph, a 22 year-old in
our circle with a black hoodie and a
devil-may-care demeanor, thrust a
lit spliff toward Rick.
Taking it, Rick smiled at me and,
before a quick toke, added:
"Like I said, it gets around."
In addition to Rick and Ralph,
there was Will, a bearded college
student who was always smiling,
and Dillon, a stand-offish charac-
ter who had a death grip on a bottle
of cheap wine and was constantly
monitoring his friend's hyperac-
tive pit bull (he was watching it for
a friend) tethered to a nearby tree.
THE
DAYLIGHT
I got a taste of the "Occupy"
movement's daytime antics when I
ran by Zuccotti on Saturday to join
the march. But the stories Rick Hu
shared with me later that night
were rife with celebrity appearanc-
es, pedestrian hecklers and zealous
speeches, which were way more
exciting than what I gathered from
first glance.
So when I returned to the park
three days later at 1 p.m., my antici-
pation was tempered by the fear
that I might have missed the best of
theprotests. Howlongcanthe show
go on?
Luckily, if you occupy it, they will
dome.
Tourists had already filled the
dark from corner to corner, tripping
over air mattresses and lunging

over slumbering occupants to wit-
ness one of several "attractions."
To the west, the arrhythmic,
24-hour drum line continued to
play. To the north, New York City
Councilmember Brad Lander advo-
cating for Jewish welfare. To the
east, Harry Braun, a human livewire
with ghost-white hair who is appar-
ently running for president, erected
three easelswith visual aids - rem-
iniscent of a poorly-made science
fair project - which he occasionally
pointed to while yelling angrily at a
crowd of onlookers. To the south,
two topless women stood covered
in body paint, a hybrid of Ozzfest's
boob art and Avatar's Na'vi tribes-
women.

- I tried to ask him once more what
he would do to restructure. His
expression stiffened.
He mentioned the "bank's
bailouts" and emphasized their
responsibility to "reinvest" in Amer-
ican companies, but my time was up
before he could finish. A bevy of anx-
ious arms holding recorders from
reporters were soon held to his face.
Hoping for more concrete
answers, I avoided celebrity inter-
views the rest of the day and sidled
over to the "People's Library" that
Rick pointed out. After politely
declining a copy of the "Bhagavad
Gita" from a man soliciting dona-
tions, I approached a small table
manned by Bob Broadhurst, a union

located the source of the uneasiness
I had been feeling since Saturday's
march.
I noticed that the Occupy Wall
Street movement has two common
patterns: for one, the movement's
older members have a far better
handle on our country's political
and financial problems than its
younger members, likely because
these problems directly affected
their job security.
Second, in spite of the older gen-
eration's awareness of the corrupt
banks, lobbyists and politicians, no
one I spoke to conceded any person-
al responsibility for the recession.
Wasn't the average Joe complicit
in any of this?
In the early 2000s, low-to-mid-
dle income mortgage applicants
with bad credit forged income
documents and defrauded lenders
so they could borrow more money
for bigger houses. Bank reports
of suspected mortgage fraud rose
1,411 percent between 1997 and
2005. Predatory lenders and invest-
ment banks didn't cause the credit
crunch alone; in fact, they had plen-
ty of help from average Americans.
And we still didn't learn our les-
son. Americans owed nearly $1 tril-
lion in revolving debt only two years
ago, a symptom of the "spend now,
worry later" approach we've come
to know and love.
Occupy protesters demand tax
reform and claimed to represent
the average taxpayer, but they don't
think about the $5 million the pro-
test has cost city taxpayers in police
overtime pay. They claim "solidar-
ity," yet can't agree on how to spend
their money, rally around a few
common demands or even settle on
how a general assembly should be
run and who should run it.
Troubled by an odd mixture of
anger at the protests and guilt with
myself, I sat down to unwind a bit
before I leave. That's when Patrick
Creasey, astocky20-somethingwith
a close crew cut, saw part of my voice
recorder jutting from my shoulder
bag and spoke up in his thick Jersey
accent.
"Hey, you should interview me
for your article, man."
He laughed at the stark contrast
between the spiffy tourists and the
haggard sleepers they step over.
"Look at this girl, walking
around like she's in some tourist
attraction," he said, pointing out
a pre-teen, walking alongside her
parents. They shot him a dirty look
while they passed by.
"Walking through here like it's
the goddamn Empire State Build-
ing," he yelled after them.

He turned back to me and
launched into a convincing impres-
sion of a tourist family.
"Come on now Jimmy and Sally,
let's go have a look at the bums."
I asked him why he came to Zuc-
cotti Park.
"Why else? To look at the bums!"
Rick's view of the protests was
almost idealistic. He saw them as a
reflection of New York, "a city so big
and so great it brings the best peo-
ple together with the worst people,"
he said.
But Patrick soon took back his
"bum" comment, let his guard down
a little and hung his head, ashamed
at his own lack of candor. He chose
his next words carefully, the weight
of his disappointment now made
obvious.
"I came because I really thought
there was something, but there's
nothing."
DEPARTU RE
I thanked Patrick for his time
and left Zuccotti, stopping short
to look the park over once more.
When I descended the park steps
to the sidewalk, I saw an important
work of street art that I missed my
last night here, a bronze statue cast
by John Seward Johnson II in 1982.
"Double Check" depicts a mid-
dle-aged businessman peering into
his open briefcase, sitting on one
of Zuccotti's granite benches next
to the capitalists who eat lunch
there. Ten years ago, famous photos
showed his head and torso poking
through the ash and rubble of the
fallen World Trade Center towers.
For weeks after Sept. 11, mourners
laid flowers at his feet to honor the
businessmen who walked to work
on an ordinary morning and never
returned.
Now, trash is scattered on the
sidewalk all around him and
stuffed in his briefcase. A small,
stained American flag is roped
around his head like the trademark
bandanna of a cranky Vietnam vet.
There's a piece of paper taped to his
briefcase quoting SoHo street art-
ist James De La Vega: "The game of
capitalism breeds dishonest men."
Turning to leave, I found that
I could no longer distinguish
between the drums, whistles,
speeches and chants. All I heard
wasissnne.~

the

And standing somewhere in the electrician in the IBEW Local 103.
middle was Reverend Jesse Jack- Broadhurst was a busy man:
son with his bodyguard in tow. The When I interviewed him, he had
two men turned their figures for a just returned from a weeklong trip
panorama of the park, expecting a to Occupy Boston. He paused to rest
frenzy of reporters. Instead, they his voice frequently - it was hoarse
got a college kid with a cheap pock- from two weeks of chanting. He
et recorder. told me he has been at the park peri-
To take advantage of precious odically for the past few weeks, and
time, our interview was short and that he was among the 700 protest-
sweet. I told him where I'm from ers arrested onthe BrooklynBridge.
and asked him why he was. there. He talked at length about possi-
He paused a moment to think, then ble solutions to the Wall Street issue
gently rested a hand on my shoulder including the restoration of the
and guided me down a narrow path Glass-Steagal Act, which was first,
between two sleeping occupants. instated in 1933 as a response to the
"I'm here to talk about a lack of stock market Crash of 1929, only to
economic security - the kind that's be repealed in 1999 by the Gramm-_
manifested in Michigan," he said. Leach-Bliley Act.
"Some people there have no place "I just want us to end the flow of
to go. We've been a part of that fight Wall Street's money into Washing-
in Michigan because the poorest ton," he said.
people are going to take the biggest I felt overwhelmed by the pro-
hit there." testers' diverse backgrounds and
I asked again, more directly, shared frustrations. I spoke with
"What do you hope to accomplishby breast cancer survivors, World
coming?" War II veterans, burnouts, home-
He gave me a very brief list of less people, artists, communists
what he deems America's toughest and people of numerous races, reli-
issues - "malnutrition" and "eco- gions and political factions. I heard
nomic restructuring," in that order opinion after opinion, and I finally

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