Why We Occupy

October 26

Walter I

My name is Walter. I am a building trades journeyman in Plumbers Local Union Number One, and I am a 9/11 first responder. I was at the World Trade Center from September twelfth to September sixteenth, 2001, as an unpaid volunteer. Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with autoimmune disease of the lungs, which is known as sarcoidosis, and I was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Both conditions and everything that’s attached to them have put me out of work.

On the table in front of me, I have all my medications. All the medications that you see consist of steroids, painkillers, and cream for my leg because I get breakouts. You know what’s called the World Trade Center Rash? I actually have that, and a myriad of other problems. I’m out here risking my health to support what goes on here.

I think people have gotten sick and tired of the system the way it exists at the moment. And it’s not just here in the United States, it’s around the world.

You know, people can walk by and be apathetic all they want. When it hits them and it hits their family, they’ll be sleeping on this side of the fence, too. I used to be a hard-working guy. I used to go to work, but because of what I did for my country, I got sick. And now, that system which I went to go save is trying to throw me under the bus.

My compensation case happens to be this Friday. I also have a disability case—thanks to Congressman Crowley, by the way, who was able to get it pushed up—but my lawyers have a case that same day, so I got adjourned temporarily. I’m also signed up with the Victim Compensation Fund, so I have a huge legal battle in front of me.

It’s because of that, and it’s because of what I’d seen my father go through in the past when he was out of work. I’m watching everything that’s going on: people fighting, these punk cops beating up on little kids the way they are, people losing their homes left and right, people having to sell their stuff on eBay just to put food on their table . . .

A lot of people in this country and all around the world are having to say, “Do I take whatever money I have right now and put a roof over my head, or do I feed myself and my family?” That’s not a choice to make. Why are people being forced to make that choice? Especially here in America, the supposed greatest, most powerful nation on the planet? It might be worthy in Nintendo terms, but in real life, it’s not the giant it claims to be anymore, and that’s sad. It really is.

I’m very disappointed in my leaders. I’m disappointed in my government. I’m disappointed in people that I voted for. You know, I think a lot of people are starting to feel like that—I hope at the polls. Like when George Bush was our president, I hope this experience that people see all around them smacks them in the face. I hope they drink a hot cup of coffee, and say, “Hey, maybe after ten years . . .”

After the Trade Center came down, that was the main catalyst for what’s going on right now. Maybe there’ll finally be a learning curve if we turn off the Jerry Springer and the Jersey Shore, and the cooking competitions where people are fighting and committing suicide over who can make the best cupcake. That’s the American culture for you. We have to change as a people and a culture, and start getting wise, and start paying attention to what’s going on, and stop being asleep.

I made a sign here the other day, and people got insulted by it. You know they call New York the city that never sleeps? I crossed it out with a big red X and said, “Fell asleep.” Essentially, it read, “New York: The City That Fell Asleep,” because that’s what happened. People fell asleep, and it’s time to wake up.

What future do you envision for Occupy Wall Street? What would be your best-case scenario?

I don’t want to call myself an old man, but I’m a New Yorker, a tough guy. I use harsh language for this interview, even though I’m trying to censor myself. I have that working-class attitude like everyone else does, man. I don’t like to quit. I don’t like to lose. Now the people behind me are much younger than myself, and they have a fighting spirit unlike anything I ever thought I had. For a time I disagreed with a lot of things they were doing. Then I started watching a few of them getting interviewed. Last night I seen one of the gentlemen that was standing here about an hour ago—I didn’t have a chance to ask him his name. He was on New York One, and he put these guys in their place. He tore them apart, basically.

People have been accusing everybody of being hipsters here, and filthy and dirty. I mean, you know, you look at myself. I don’t look like a hipster. I don’t look filthy and dirty. I’m a construction worker. I’m an American. I’m a union man. I’m not a hipster. I’m not an artist. I’m none of that stuff. I would like to see these people try to come to a person like me and accuse me of being a hipster. But they won’t do that because they’re a bunch of cowards.

A lot of these young folk here are very intelligent. They are not stupid. Let me tell you, if I were to take a spelling test alongside with them, I bet you ten times out of ten I lose. I’m well-educated myself, but they make me look like a dummy. What does that say?

Not everybody here is as dumb as they may appear. They might look like they just got thrown off a bus in the middle of a hurricane, but a lot of them are very smart, and I think people underestimate that. The media have been saying that there’s no single message. “Where’s your message? Where’s your message?” There can’t be a single message because there’s so much to be pissed off about.

I’m here because of health care. Just look at what’s on the table. There’s one, two, three, four . . . let’s just say a round number: twelve. So there’s twelve to fourteen medicines in front of me right now, plus I’m out of work because I got sick. I got thrown under the bus because of Christie Whitman and this corrupt government saying, you know, “First responders are not sick. They’re making it up.” Cancer, you know? They left cancer out of the Zadroga Bill. People are losing their homes. They can’t afford to feed their families no more. They probably can’t even afford one of these medications I have on the table. They can’t put shoes on their feet. They can’t put clothes on their back. There’s so much to be pissed off at.

These stupid wars, like with George Bush sending our troops over to Iraq, which had nothing to do with what happened at the World Trade Center site. We all know that. We all know it was a bunch of crap, yet nobody did anything about it.

All of what I’m saying essentially boils down to: Why does it take so much bullshit to get Americans to wake up to do anything? They have to wait until two giant buildings come down. Three thousand people have to die for them to say, “Oh, man. It’s time to do something.” No, you should be like that every day. I’m not saying you’re going to walk around in paranoia, but you should be on your toes every day to prevent stuff like this from happening. I can’t stand it when people say, “I’ll wait until tomorrow,” and then they wait until the last minute.

It took almost four thousand American citizens dying overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq—fighting to defend us—and the three thousand plus people that died here, right in front of me at the World Trade Center site, and the people at Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for people to say, “Okay, now we have to do something.” Bullshit! It should be happening every day. It should have happened then, it should happen now, and it should happen in the future.

What would you recommend? What should people be doing?

I think our culture seriously needs to change. People are too apathetic. I don’t want to call them stupid and unintelligent, but they need to wake up right now. Stop watching your Jersey Shore! Stop eating your doughnuts and your pizza! It’s enough! Change your attitude, man!

You know, it took people in our past like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi and John Lennon to shake people up and say, “No more, man! We’re going to go sit in the front of the bus! We’re going to go drink out of the white people’s fountain! To hell with this! Let’s go! Let’s do something!”

Doing things is what gets things done. None of this “Okay, well, it doesn’t concern me,” you know? “It has nothing to do with me right now.” Bullshit! Bullshit! I’m out here risking my health right now by sitting here telling you this message. I shouldn’t even be outside for this long, but I’m going to be here as long as I can, until I can’t stand up no more, because I believe in it.

Are you coming every day?

I’ve been trying to, but you know, recently, because the weather’s gotten cold, my breathing hasn’t been so good and all that kind of stuff. But when I have the strength, I’m out here with my fist. I’m out here ready to fight. If I get sick, I’ll stay at home a couple days. I’ll come right back again, as long as this thing is going.

I’m out here collecting money not just for myself, but for the organizations that helped me out. There’s a couple of organizations that help me with my rent. One in particular—John Feal, if you’re listening to this—the FealGood Foundation donated seven hundred fifty dollars to me over the past two months to help me pay for my medications, my rent, my credit card bills, and for me to put food on my table and all that kind of stuff. It has also been a huge lobbyist to get the Zadroga Bill signed.

Tuesday’s Children is another organization. Whatever I get here, I’m going to donate to them, also. They’ve been taking care of us with events over at Giants Stadium or at the Meadowlands Arena. I was over at Citi Field—on the field, as a matter of fact—carrying the flag out in the outfield on 9/11, which I was honored to do. They did the F.D.N.Y. versus the Russian firefighters over at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. So I’ve been proactive with those guys. I hope to help them out a little bit today.

And of course, Occupy Wall Street. It’s a worthy cause, and I have to be a part of it. If I don’t do it, I feel like I cheated on my girlfriend, basically. I have to be here. That’s just the way it is. They have, like, this little financial system set up here.

I’m going to divide it up evenly amongst those four groups, including myself. I try to help out those who helped me, and that’s what it’s about, man. You know, our leaders aren’t helping us. The people we voted for aren’t helping us. And unfortunately, now we have to look to help ourselves.

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If my body won’t cooperate, I just pick up and leave. I don’t even tell anybody. What’ll happen is: The longer I stay outside—I mean, I got my pain meds here, but my breathing will start getting screwed up, and my muscles will start to hurt. I’ll probably go indoors for a little bit—at Burger King or something—but if I feel I can’t handle it, I’m out of here, basically. But I try to stay here, you know? I mean, I’m armed: I got dust masks in there, I got my meds here, I got my seat. The only thing is the bathroom situation.

Somebody actually asked me—it was funny—it was like, “I see you’re a plumber, why don’t you hook up some bathrooms.” [Laughs.] I’m like, “First off, I would get in trouble. I’m out of work.” I can’t do something like that, but I gave them a few suggestions, like Call-A-Head, for example, to get porta-johns here and all that kind of stuff. But the city is trying to fight this every which way they can. They sicced the Fire Department after them again.

What happened yesterday with the Fire Department?

Well, see, I kind of warned these young people here when this thing first started. I’ve been to rallies like this before. I know the system, and I know what they’re going to try to pull. Sure enough, I proved right at every turn with everything. It just happens to be that I’m a certified fire watcher, which is what they need here. I could direct them in every which way, and tell them what to do.

See, you’re not supposed to stack anything above a certain height; I think it’s six feet. You’re not supposed to have any kind of walkway blocked up, no less than three feet. This way, people can walk through, for hazards and all that. If you have a gas generator, you’re supposed to have somebody on that thing 24/7, especially with something like this. You’re supposed to have a guy taking a log of all the escape routes and all that kind of stuff. You have to have fire extinguishers all around.

I offered to help them with that, but they kind of frowned on me a little bit. Yeah, they got this strange thing. I guess, probably because they’re young, they see an older person coming along and they think, “Oh, he’s trying to tell us what to do.” They have that thing a little bit.

I’ve gotten that a little bit.

They accused me of being a cop many times already. I’ve been accused of being a Fed, a C.I.A. agent. I’ve been accused of being a police officer, a detective. [Laughs.] I’m like, “Well, what’s next, then?”

Bystander: I get that every time I get a haircut. And when I had a mustache, they were sure I was a cop.

Walter: It’s amazing.

That level of paranoia is not helping anybody.

I can understand the fear of theirs. It’s understandable because there are people that are trying to close this down. The mayor, no matter how much he tries to spin it, can’t stand this. His business friends look at it and they’re like, “It’s an eyesore,” and all that. I love it, though.

I’m trying to restrain myself from what I really want to say about why I’m here. I don’t want to make myself look bad, but I like to be a thorn in people’s sides and make them squirm around. Like, “Aw, man, did he just say that?” I love that. I love that this is an eyesore.

It’s a beautiful eyesore.

There’s really not a lot of bad people here. You’ve got to realize that a lot of the people that are getting high—doing whatever it is that they may be doing here—you’ve got to realize they don’t have anything else. I get tired of hearing, “You’re just a bunch of drunken yuppies and hipsters!” These people—a lot of them that are in here—are homeless. They’ve got nothing else, man. You see people begging out there in the subways and on the streets—begging for money, begging for change. Yeah, they might be going out there and getting drugs. So what? They might be going out there and getting beer and booze. That’s because they’ve got nothing else. They’ve got nothing else.

I can’t stand asshole people: “Oh, he’s a fucking bum!” He’s got no home. He’s got no job. He’s got barely any clothes. That’s the reason why he’s out there begging. If he goes and gets booze and weed, fine. So be it. Let him go get booze and weed. I’ve got no problem with that. That’s because he’s got no hope. He’s lost his hope, so he’s had to turn to that, unfortunately. If it makes him feel better temporarily . . . yeah, it sucks because he’s inebriated, but at least his mind is not set on, “Oh, my God! What am I going to do?” I can’t stand when people on this side of the fence say that kind of stuff about people here. I would love for them to accuse me of something like that.

Some idiot in my union actually called up my business agent to find out why I’m here. Imagine that.

That seems not very full of brotherhood, huh?

No, because there’s an I in U-N-I-O-N, unfortunately, nowadays. And I get tired of that kind of stuff, man. You see, somebody like me, who comes out and brings it on the real . . . like, I told him to shut up and be quiet, you know? Whatever, so that ain’t going to happen. That’s why I’m out here—another reason why I’m out here.

Does your union support this?

I have spoken to the delegate that was here. In his roundabout way, he kind of said that as long as I stay out of trouble . . .

I’m older. I’m experienced. I’m not going to go out there and start lighting bonfires, dancing around with Indian garb on while beating a drum, and then smashing the drum like I’m in Iron Maiden. No, that’s not going to happen. And go smoke a bowl of hash, no stuff like that.

I’m here just to get my point across, you know what I mean? Honestly, carrying this thing . . . as a first responder, it does come with a burden, you know. A lot of people—they look at that as they would look at soldiers or whoever it may be. It comes with responsibility behind it. I have to represent that. At the same time, I’m going to throw my comedy out there once in a while—poke fun at people—but it comes with responsibility.

When it comes to badmouthing and bashing certain individuals, most people here have been disenfranchised by the system. They have no home, no job. They have their dog and their green army gear and their knapsack. They have dreads. I know the type that everybody’s judging. Leave them alone. They ask you for a few nickels and they go buy a pack of cigarettes with it, so be it. Leave them alone. They have no choice. Their parents threw them out on their ass because they themselves are struggling. They’re out there trying to survive. I don’t want to hear that they’re all bums. That’s where I stand. ❖

Rory

I totally understand why people don’t want to talk to me.

The P.R. guy told us to stick to the facts and stay away from personal stories, but you know, he’s wise in the ways of a world we’re trying to change. That’s very P.R.-savvy and very political-savvy, but it’s not people-savvy. It’s not human, really. It’s enforcing programming on people, you know?

A lot of people really want to see an end goal and a structure to this place, but my opinion—I’m a Taoist before I’m anything else—is that life is a means unto itself. If that life is working—everybody’s happy, everybody’s fed, everybody’s warm, everybody’s sheltered—then none of this really matters to me.

We’ve introduced a new paradigm, I think. I mean, other people have thought of it first, but we timed it to the point where it can really take hold and stick, and you know, this is only the beginning. I’m very encouraged, and I hope that one day we have no need for politics or rules or anything like that. We can just—I don’t mean to use an expletive on your tape . . .

Say whatever you want.

Okay, well, my one guiding rule—the one thing that I wish I could get out to the world, you know, spell it out in magnetic poetry on the refrigerator—is: “Don’t be a dick!” That’s it. It’s so simple. Life is very simple. It’s us that makes it complicated.

So I’m here to help things along, nurture a very, very good thing, and I don’t have any overarching goals that I want to see accomplished or anything. You’ve got to accept what you have right now. You can’t have your eyes cast on the horizon. As Buddha said: “One who walks with their eyes constantly on the horizon falls in many ditches.” So right here, right now, we’re doing good. We’re happy. And right now is the only thing any human being has ever had, anyway. The past and the future are simply ideas.

You know, I think we’ve already succeeded, and will continue to succeed on a grander scale as it goes along.

I feel the same way. I go home at night because of the baby—

Fair enough.

But it’s nice to know it’s still going on.

Well, you’re contributing a lot to the movement by what you’re doing right now, so I appreciate that.

If people will talk to me. We’ll see. More and more, people don’t want to talk. Now I hear that the P.R. guys told you not to.

Yeah.

That’s fucked up, though. That’s so against the spirit of the movement that it’s sort of blowing my mind.

He’s coming from the right place, just the wrong time.

Well, also there is a difference between, for instance, me and Fox News. I mean, I’d like to think there is.

If Fox News were to interview me, I would just grin like an idiot, thank them for showing up, and invite them to join us. That would be it.

Well, that would be the way to go with them. Sort of like intellectual nonviolence. Passive resistance.

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Tell me about your day-to-day experience of being out here.

Day to day, I usually wake up pretty early-ish, get myself some coffee and some breakfast. I go around and see if there’s any fires that need putting out.

Literal fires?

Metaphorically speaking.

So you’re mediating?

Um, no. Basically, I’m just doing what needs doing, and sometimes, you know, if somebody’s really stressed out, I’ll tell them to just chill out, and I’ll handle it for a second. My main goal here is to find the shit that nobody else wants to do and do that, because somebody’s got to do it. I tried doing this gentleman’s job [mediator], but I am not good at it because I am not emotionally connected in such a way that I could peacefully negotiate sanity out of people.

Wait! [Laughs.] What does that mean?

[Laughs.] The training that we receive basically states that we’re supposed to recognize some kind of emotional need in ourselves in a given conflict situation, and then try to put ourselves in the other person’s place. You know, I’m caring, but I guess I’m bad at empathy. [Laughs.] If I see somebody cold, I put a blanket on them, but if I see somebody drunk and making themselves suffer, I kind of get this . . . my dad kind of comes up in me, and I’m like, “Maybe you’ll learn this time!” I work very hard on the face I put forward to the world, but at the end of the day, I really am a curmudgeon. Kind of a jerk.

[Laughs.] But you’re a Taoist jerk.

Yeah.

They’re not mutually exclusive.

No, they’re not. As a matter of fact, before I was a Taoist, I practiced Zen, and we have a storied history of bitter, crotchety old men who like to hit people in the heads with sticks to instill enlightenment, so . . .

Like how all the kōans end with the guy giving a shitty answer?

He hits him with a stick, and suddenly he becomes enlightened. That’s the end to pretty much all of them: “Suddenly he became enlightened.” Some of them are just non sequiturs, though. You have to disengage the literal, linguistic part of your mind to understand them, and you have to sit with them for a long time. Basically, the unifying theme is that words don’t necessarily indicate the phenomena they’re meant to describe, so they’re essentially nonsense. Once you dispense with them, then you can really start to get it. And sometimes, you know, Zen is just a slap to the face. It’s not always, “How are you feeling right now?” Sometimes it doesn’t matter how you’re feeling right now. What matters is what needs doing.

Tell me if you think this is totally off, but in Jewish theology, there’s a lot of jokes, you know what I mean? That’s part of it. The irony undermines meaning, the calcification of meaning.

There’s a great story about a young rabbi who’s studying—I forget the word for it, but basically, it’s somebody who’s been studying the Torah so long that it starts to lose meaning for him. The younger rabbi comes to an older rabbi, and he’s like, “I think I’m becoming this.” And the older rabbi’s like, “Oh, he’s been studying the Torah for two years and all of a sudden he’s this!”

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Tell me about how you decided to come down here.

Well, I decided to come down here because this is the focal point of a new way of being and thinking. It’s still in it’s infancy, and it hasn’t reached anything near consensus, but it will, and I want to help it along in any way I can.

What do you think is going to help people to get on board?

“Relax.”

Easier said than done. [Laughs.]

A major part of it is that people’s egos get in the way. This isn’t a movement until it’s moving in their direction, you know? Until it’s moving towards the way they think it should be. But you share the planet with seven billion other people. They might have some input, too.

And I think that once we get rid of the really oppressive forms of structure, life will be able to organically take the shape that it’s meant to. And that’s what I think this is, for good or ill. There’s always going to be a bad element here, and you know, without it there would be no appreciation of the good element. It’s just something that we always, as human beings, will have to struggle with. It’s part of what makes us human, and it’s part of what makes us better as human beings, and pushes us to evolve.

Well, somebody was saying to me that it needs to be worked out here so then it can be worked out in the bigger world.

Yeah, and the conclusions we come to here may not necessarily be the same conclusions they come to everywhere. I don’t know if they’re occupying Idaho right now, but let’s just use that as an example. It’s completely different individuals there, completely different needs. ❖