Why We Occupy
October 30
Sean
How was yesterday for you guys in the library?
Wet and cold.
Were you able to keep everything pretty much dry?
I’m not sure yet. I’m still opening up boxes. I’m finding lots of wet books, so I think we’re going to lose a lot.
The Tupperware’s not working that well?
Most of them do. Some of them are of superior quality, and some of them are not. We’re going to find out.
Is that something you guys would need, better Tupperware?
I think that we’re actually concentrating more on the solid infrastructure. It’s going to be a canopied tent—it’s ordered and on the way—so that we can remain open during the winter. If we use this Tupperware open-air system that we’ve been using, we’ll have to shut down. That’s not very conducive to what we’re all about. We need to protect the library from the elements, and we need to continue to be open.
Are these all donations?
Yes. They’re all donations from individuals, publishers and celebrities.
What kinds of things have you gotten?
Anything that you would normally find in a library. It’s the People’s Library. It’s for the people. We don’t discriminate books. I’m a book snob myself, but we take everything.
What does that mean? You like what you like?
I like the good stuff.
Me too.
We have a plethora of fiction because people donate a lot of fiction, but it’s not necessarily being taken. This is a political space. People are looking for things on politics, economics, social struggle, labor, things like that. We have a lot of fiction, so we kind of recommend that if you are going to donate books: please, no fiction.
No fiction.
Bring it down. We’ll have a look. We can’t refuse anything, but . . .
What are the books that are really flying out of here?
Well, you know, we have a small reference section, and we mark it “Do Not Remove.” We have a little seating area where we want to keep certain types of books in-house, the ones that would be flying out of here if we didn’t mark them “Do Not Remove.” People are taking them anyway, so lots of Chomsky, lots of David Graeber. Slavoj Žižek, of course. Chris Hedges, Naomi Wolf, Naomi Klein. You know, Karl Marx.
In your outside life, are you also a librarian?
I’m not, no. I’m a writer and a traveler and a man of the road, I guess, and I’m fortunate that I’m very comfortable living outside and with the elements, and that I’m a very able-bodied person to occupy. And I just love libraries and I love books so much, so I help out here. We do have several actual librarians on staff here, though, with master’s degrees in library science and whatnot.
What’s your system of withdrawal? Are you just . . . they go out and they don’t come back?
Complete honor system. It’s up to you. Like, we encourage you to bring the books back. I mean, it’s all about sharing and having an abundance of literature that’s available for free. And so if you feel like you should bring this book back so someone else can read it, awesome. If you feel like you should give it to your friend, great. If you feel it has to remain on your shelf for the rest of your life, okay. That’s kind of the policy.
What drew you down here?
Well, I was kind of off the grid for a while, and when I opened up the Internet again, I saw that the occupation had happened and that things were taking place. I wanted to come to New York anyway, but I thought that it was just a beautiful thing, with such momentum and magnetism. I thought that, finally, it was time to get involved, and so I came down here to occupy. I saw that the library existed, and just sort of made myself at home.
Do you sleep in the library? Is that your spot?
I just took my tent down.
What’s your winter plan?
You know, there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. That’s a Swedish saying, I believe. I’m fortunate. I’m an able-bodied person who knows how to take care of myself. It’s about layers. It’s about goose-down sleeping bags. It’s about having the proper equipment to maintain your space. There’s lots of people who don’t know how to do that, so we try to help them. But it’s really just a matter of dressing for the weather.
I’m from Canada. An average wintertime temperature of minus four degrees Celsius doesn’t really trouble me. I’m used to minus twenty-five degrees Celsius. I’m from Winnipeg. It’s, like, the coldest place in the world. It’s not really an issue for me.
Xìnbù: Hànwèi rénlèi hépíng zìyóu mínzhǔ!
Sean: Peace, and a few other things.
Do you speak Chinese?
I speak Chinese, yeah.
You’ve spent time in China?
I’ve spent a lot of time in Taiwan, studying Chinese poetry, writing. Autodidactic pursuits in culture and language and things like that.
So you’re a man of the world. New York is not too—
New York is amazing. It’s great. I wish I had time to go and see it, but I’m too busy. But you know, soon. I need to take a break soon.
How long have you been here?
Two weeks.
You’ve been outside the whole time?
I have, yeah.
You should take a break.
I actually am. I’m going to go home and see my family. My sister’s having another baby, so I’m going to go play uncle.
That’s fun.
Yeah, it’s good. And then I’m going to come back with all my winter gear extraordinaire.
Any specific books you’d like to see people bring down?
More David Graeber; people steal them. I haven’t had a chance to read it. I say steal . . . that’s an incorrect word to use, but I’m like, “Please do not remove them from the library!” It’s a hot commodity.
What are the titles?
Debt. We need everything. We need more Zinn, things like that. We need everything. I can’t specifically say because it’s a library. We accept all books.
I was thinking about what to bring. I have an absolute surfeit of books, but it’s mostly fiction.
That’s my baby. I love fiction, but I’m trying to educate myself here.
Do you like old writers or new?
Oh, old. You want to be a writer? Then you have to read the best stuff. You should never read a bad book.
So who do you like?
The Russians. I like Tolstoy.
Tolstoy more than Dostoevsky?
No.
I like Dostoevsky more than Tolstoy.
Yeah, I started to like Dostoevsky more when I read Coetzee’s Master of Petersburg. That was just brilliant. I love that. And I like Tolstoy because of how he revamped Christianity for cool people, which was interesting and a brilliant move.
I love American literature. I love John Steinbeck. The Beats got me into poetry and reading. Before I was here, I was in Lowell for the Jack Kerouac festival. So I was doing readings with David Amram and Steve Dalachinsky—great New York jazz poet—and rubbing elbows with all these guys who are the last living Beats, and I was like, “Wow!” Yeah, it was beautiful stuff.
I just read this Allen Ginsberg biography—what the fuck was it called? It’s a quote from Walt Whitman.
We have an Allen Ginsberg section here. The Allen Ginsberg Society came down here and gave us a big donation, so I made an Allen Ginsberg section, because he would have . . .
He would have loved this.
He would have been here.
Yeah. He would have just been here.
Anne Waldman was here last week. She submitted to our Poetry Anthology, and she dedicated her poem to Allen Ginsberg. He would so be here. His spirit is here, without question. ❖
Josh I
Do you want to tell me a little bit about how yesterday went?
Yesterday? Well, it was snowing. It was cold and wet. I stayed in my tent most of the day. That’s pretty much what I did yesterday.
Were you able to keep dry?
To a certain point, yes. My sleeping bag got wet. A lot of other stuff got wet. I stayed pretty warm; it wasn’t too bad. Everybody just kind of stayed in their tents.
That’s what it looked like on the feed. We saw somebody coming by with bananas and fruit.
Yeah, there was people giving out hand warmers.
Do you want to tell me a little bit about yourself and what led you to come down here?
Yeah, well, I’m from Arkansas, and I had a job working at a company called Whirlpool. I worked there for five years, and then they laid off almost a thousand people. They outsourced our jobs to Mexico for cheaper wages. So I guess I came up here to try to change that. Bring our jobs back to America.
How long have you been here?
I’ve only been here about a week.
How are you finding the experience?
The people are nice. It’s kind of, you know . . . it’s a love community, I guess you could say. Some people have their own agenda and they don’t want to help out the community, which is fine. But mostly, everybody is caring. They’ll help you out if you ask them for something.
Are you connected with a working group here?
Not really. I just kind of help out wherever I’m needed. I volunteer when people do the mic checks and stuff. If they need somebody to clean up, I’ll do that.
What’s your game plan for the winter?
I’m here for about a month. After that, I plan on occupying another place.
Where are you thinking of going?
Probably south somewhere.
Somewhere warmer.
Yeah. ❖
Adam
You guys got here the same night?
That is correct.
But not from the same place.
No, he came from Arkansas, and I flew up here from San Antonio. We got here Saturday evening. We were checking out the place, and we just happened to sleep in the same area. Back then they didn’t really have a lot of tents up yet. We were just sleeping next to each other in a pile of people, shoulder-to-shoulder, pretty much.
As it progressed and more tents moved in, we had our little tarp area set up. We constantly had to take it down. It was either for cleaning, or other tents were moving in, or it was raining and it didn’t really work out right. So now we finally got a tent.
How’s that going? The tent works pretty well for you?
Pretty well. It’s just getting a little damp because of that hurricane-like storm last night, but overall, it’s a lot nicer than a tarp.
What was the thing that drew you here?
I saw a lot of angry people—angry at the same things I’ve been thinking about this whole time. I was in college before this happened. We were hearing about, oh, corruption in the ballot machines, and the way people value the dollar over humanity, over helping each other out. So that’s what drew me here.
They’re not judgmental. They take in homeless. People from America’s Most Wanted apparently also sleep here, and there’s regular people, so . . . it’s a unique atmosphere that I haven’t been in before, so that’s one of the things that attracted me. Also, the message of “corporate money out of Washington.” That I agree with.
Can you tell me about your experience of the occupation itself.
Let’s talk about the structure of the organization: There’s not really a structure. As far as it’s organized, it’s just a bunch of different working groups. We have the drum circle, Pulse; Security or Community Watch; the kitchen; Media; and—what’s that?—Sanitation department; and they all form consensus within their groups. I guess they have a delegate or something, who comes in and presents what they need, or what they want to have happen.
As far as cleaning goes, it’s a little bit disorganized. Yesterday or the day before, everyone was trying to clean up their tents or clean up around their area after the rain, but they weren’t exactly sure how to do it. I guess some guy came up and announced, “Hey, we’re going to clean up! Take everyone’s tents down! Wipe up around them! We’re going to have hoses come and spray the place down!”
This was before the storm?
Yeah, before the storm, the night after that rain. They wanted to bag up everyone’s wet stuff, like, and don’t even care whose it is. Just bag it up if it’s wet, put it down at the laundromat pick-up area. Just have it washed. And stuff usually gets lost there, so a lot of people wouldn’t want to do that.
How are they doing the laundry?
I just know that every Friday, they have a truck come that picks up all these clothes—we bag them there at the front of the steps—and they take it off to some mysterious laundromat that no one seems to know where it is or what the name of it is.
Are they paying for it, or is someone donating that?
I’m not sure.
Have you joined any committees?
I tried to join Security, but they didn’t get back to me. I’m thinking about trying to talk to some of these organizers—some of the main people who have been around for a while, kind of know how things work—and see if we can’t get some more fluidity in the camp. You know, better communication, because it seems like messages that go out here about cleanup don’t always reach down to the lower end of the camp. People get antsy when you take their stuff down and they don’t know what you’re doing. They get antsy about taking their tarps down that they took so long to set up, or about bagging up their stuff.
Me and Josh feel their pain because that’s what they were doing the first couple of days. We had our tarp set up all nice. They wanted us to take it down and put our tarps back in a pile. So people had their perfect setup and had to take it down, and then some random person just took their tarp from the pile. You’ve got to start over from scratch, pretty much.
Our idea was to go around and ask people if they wanted help cleaning up. We weren’t going to bag up their personal items unless they wanted us to; we just let them do it themselves. But if they had better warning beforehand instead of right then and there, people might have agreed with it more.
[Olivia offers Adam a cigarette.]
What is it?
It’s Merit Ultra Light—the especially long ones, the one hundreds. It’s the same price, but it’s more cigarette.
How much is it?
It’s, like, over ten dollars here.
That’s ridiculous.
I know, it’s insane. They’re taxing, like, eight bucks on it, something like that.
Where do those taxes go? Not to the people.
Not to the people. I don’t know, that’s a good question.
◆
What has been your best experience so far?
The best experience is when people come down here who don’t stay overnight, and they say, “Here, take this! We really believe in what you’re doing! Keep it up, guys! This is the right way to go! We agree with you! We’re here for you!” Having the support of the people is the best part. There’s times when you can lose faith in it, and just be like, “Is this really going anywhere?” We don’t have Internet or anything; we can’t really tell what’s going on outside this camp. So to have people come down here and give their support really means a lot.
Would you say it’s all different types of people, or is there a specific group who’s coming down?
It’s very mixed. People come down who have jobs, a family to look after. If they weren’t tied down, they’d probably be here with us, but they have the family, have the job, and just come to donate supplies, whatever they can find for us.
The people staying overnight here are of all different kinds. They don’t have anything to tie them down, so they’re here.
Did you drop out of college to come here?
I did not drop out of college. I withdrew from the classes, but I’m still enrolled there for three semesters, not including this one. Depending on what goes on here, I could just go back to school in about a year and everything would be the same. I don’t have to re-apply or anything.
But I withdrew from my classes to come here. I was in the middle of college, but then I saw Occupy Wall Street going on. I always had this feeling of: I could be doing something more than this.
Do you have anything that you want to add to the record, or anything specific you want to say?
I think if this group is going to work, everybody’s got to be behind it, because it’s not just the system that we’ve got to change, it’s people’s minds and what they value. It’s not going to be a paper, at the end of the day, that’s going to keep you warm and safe. It’s going to be people that you can rely on. That’s my own take.
What do you think is the way to change people’s minds?
If Occupy Wall Street keeps going on—and the other Occupys around the country and the world—then people will start to get the message that we’re here to stay. People will start to realize that they need to change—that something’s really wrong here. I don’t think there’s an exact way to do it. Just got to see what happens.
You’re in it for the long haul here?
I wish. I’ve got to go back to Texas to take care of the animals.
What kind of animals?
I’ve got two dogs and a cat. My mom is going to go off to D.C. to visit family, so I’m going to go back to take care of the animals.
What does she think of this?
She loves it. She didn’t love the fact of me coming down here. She said, “I don’t know if I should be more worried or supportive of what you’re doing,” but Occupy Wall Street she supports.
Now that I’m here, she’s happy about it, but she’s just like, “You call me almost every day. Tell me what happens, so I can make sure you’re safe,” like, after the storm and everything. “Okay, mom.” Yeah, she’s a big activist. My dad’s not so much.
Is he in favor of the movement?
Not really. He’s one of the guys. He makes a six-figure income, and he didn’t really think Occupy Wall Street had any momentum to it. ❖
Daniel
Tell me about the jobs you’re doing.
All right. I am working for Community Relations, trying to continue the relationship we have with the outside community. Putting out fires, basically. I’m a firefighter. I go from group to group and look at the bigger picture about what the hell this occupation is doing and what brick walls we’re going to run up against. See them off in the future, and try to stave them off—stave this car off from hitting that wall in the future by doing things now. That’s what I do.
What are some of the fires?
Security, hygiene, community relations, and public safety. Those are all huge issues. There’s so many people here. A few of them are putting in ridiculous amounts of energy, but there’s a lot of people here that aren’t doing a lot.
The few people that are thinking about this stuff are run off their feet. All they can do is look at what they’re doing right now, at this moment, and there’s no planning. I shouldn’t say “no.” There’s very little planning. No one has the time for it because we’re so busy. So I’m trying to be the hover-guy that overlooks the entire thing, and then says, “What do we need to do?” Start alerting people: “If we don’t do this, here’s what’s going to happen!” That’s my job. ❖
Paul I
This movement, O.W.S., is evolving. What many wished to portray as a radical kids’ movement—that was a far stretch, and certainly not the truth that is evolving. What the mayor, the people in the city, the people in the nation, and our own president are seeing is a broad tapestry of faces, ideas and ideologies—the true essence of what this country is and was founded on.
All that we could ever hope for is to make a valid contribution to the existing structure of the nation and the world. The world structure is changing, but we have the ability, based on our constitutional rights, to peacefully assemble, to come up with ideas and grievances, and to present them. And I’m sure, at the appropriate time, that will be done.
For now, all we can do is remind people that we are gathering here for a reason. We have people in the unions—international, national and local unions—who have completely thrown their hats into the ring here. They have their reasons to be here. We did not invite them, initially. They started filtering in on their own. And then we said, “If your heart’s in it, please come out in full support of Occupy Wall Street.” That’s ten to twenty million families, with their children. That’s a lot of people. They are the electorate.
We had a family night: a hundred fifty families with their children. That is the face of this movement. So the mainstream media or any politician who wants to go up and paint negative pictures of these kinds of happenings and events is not taking an honest look at what is actually happening here. If they do take an honest look, and they’re being honest with themselves, as individuals or corporations, then they will certainly come to terms with it and be supportive.
The intent of this movement is simply to help—to assist in steering the ship of state back onto its appointed course, which is our obligation based on the Declaration of Independence. We were instructed by the founders to be here should the government fail to govern to the common benefit of all of us. So we are simply fulfilling a promise, okay? And that is why we’re here.
When they founded the country, they didn’t have any clear set of principles. The concepts and the ideas that eventually founded the nation were scrutinized and debated, back and forth, and there were open, heavy dialogues about: What’s right? What’s wrong? Should we limit freedom? Should we have no limitations on freedom? And they came up with a constitution. They came up with our founding documents, in essence. It took them years to do that.
So all we’re trying to do here is pool our ideas, gather our thoughts, with probably one of the greatest reasons that one could ever gather for, and that’s to ask the people that wish to be tyrants to pull back. If they refuse to do that, then compel them to pull back. Allow the system to function. Allow Congress to once again represent the people who elected them there. And perhaps one of the real reasons they have not come into this park is because the mainstream of this nation is very vocally, vociferously saying, “This is our obligation! We are your electorate! Don’t go up against us or we will vote you out!”
So coming into the winter—and it will be a difficult winter, coming into the election of 2012—our hope and our dream is to make a valid contribution. No matter what Fox News or Murdoch or any twisted logic tries to say—no matter what they try to do—I believe wholeheartedly that the voice of the American people is far stronger than theirs. And I believe that our nonviolent approach—our inclusive approach in trying to speak to them, to communicate to them our good intentions—will take root, and perhaps already has.
All we can do is hope that the people out there who wish to provoke violence—to pick at us, and to challenge these movements in other cities—begin to understand that they’re doing harm to this country when they do not allow the people of the country to gather and peacefully assemble. It is our obligation and right to do so. ❖
Joe
This is what they tell me to hand out, so this is what I hand out.
It’s not coming out every day now, is it?
Oh, no. This is issue three. Every week and a half, two weeks there’s an issue.
Okay, I must’ve gotten number two yesterday.
So are you occupying?
Yeah, I’m an occupier.
How long have you been here?
I’ve been here four weeks.
Where are you sleeping?
I sleep in a tent up front.
Do you have a specific area you sleep in?
No, no. I move around sometimes. Yeah, sometimes you have to move, you know?
What originally got you involved?
Day three I was here, and I stayed. I lost my apartment and job in one day by Hurricane Irene, and I haven’t seen a single cent from Uncle Sam. I had flood insurance and the whole nine yards. I lost eighteen thousand dollars in cash. I lost a lot of stuff. Uncle Sam ain’t helping nobody now, man. I didn’t think the government was that bad until this happened to me.
I’ve never asked for a single thing from the government. I’ve never asked for disability. I’ve never asked for unemployment. I’ve never asked for anything whatsoever. Now I need help, and they’re not helping. I graduated college, can’t even find a fucking job, you know?
What’s your field?
Radio and T.V. production. There’s nothing. I almost got into Fox News, and then the day I go in for my interview, they start their cutbacks. I was freaking sure about that one . . .
How’s your experience of Occupy Wall Street been?
Other than the weather, you know, that’s pretty much it.
You had some weather yesterday . . .
Oh, it sucked! Luckily, I stayed dry—my tent stayed dry because I had tarps over it. It’s still a little wet. It’s damp inside and stuff, but that’s what happens when you’re outside, you know?
Do you feel like you’re ready for the winter?
Well, I live right in Jersey, so I think I’m going to transfer. After this gets a little colder—once it gets, like, snow—I’ll probably be in my house, you know? Occupying Jersey City because it’s closer to my house.
It was really cool here in the beginning. Now it’s . . . different.
What’s the difference?
The difference is the people. We’re feeding the homeless now, and I can’t even get food. I mean, I didn’t eat breakfast for, like, four days. I get in the line and it’s too long. I’m supposed to be doing my job, and I have other things—personal things—to do, too. This isn’t just my whole life, you know. I have other things I have to do, too.
I have two grandparents in the hospital, you know what I mean? So I’m bouncing everything back and forth. My parents are there today, so I’ll be there tomorrow. My grandma’s in New York City. She got switched from Morristown Memorial in New Jersey, and I’m the only one in New York City; I go there as much as I can. My dad works during the week. I’m usually there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then my mom takes Thursday and Friday, and my dad does the weekends.
I feel for you. It’s really hard when you have family in the hospital.
Yeah, it’s ridiculous!
So it’s changing a lot here. What was it like in the very beginning?
In the beginning it was peaceful. Everybody was giving. Everybody was helping everybody out. Now it’s just, like, New York.
Some people are saying that they would like to strike against the people who aren’t working. Are you with that contingent?
I don’t think it’s at that point yet, but there should be something done. We do have a new security team, so . . .
What’s the game plan? More patrols?
I don’t know; he’s only been here for two days. I guess we’ll find out.
Your job is distributing the paper?
I do donations and I help with Comfort. I do the blankets and the sleeping bags at night—to make sure everybody gets one.
Have you had enough blankets to go around?
So far we’ve had a decent amount. If not, we have emergency. ❖
Garth
I dropped out of society a couple years ago. I didn’t feel comfortable being a part of it for a lot of reasons I won’t go into. My girlfriend felt the same way; that’s how we met. We were just waiting for something like this to happen, and we were surprised it didn’t happen sooner. So as soon as we could get here to the head of this thing, Manhattan, we came to this particular spot. We plan on staying as long as they’re here.
Since we got here, there’s been bad weather twice and we’ve only been here for a few days now. Every time the bad weather strikes, there’s lots of donations coming in, but there’s not enough volunteers here that are willing to brave the weather, so we end up with lots of waste. That’s really what we need is more people. We have the right amount of donations, but we need help distributing it.
You need people to help in the kitchen?
All over. That’s why you see there’s a lot of chaos right now, because yesterday was one of those terrible-weather days, and now we’re picking up the mess.
How’d it go for you yesterday?
For me, I had a good tent. I had good gear. In the morning, I worked for a while until I got cold, and then I went in my tent for the rest of the day and stayed warm.
You’re dry and everything?
Yeah. Condensation, but no soaking wet.
Are you somebody who camps and stuff?
Since we dropped out of society, we just travel with backpacks. We try to write about our experiences of that lifestyle. We try to provoke other people to do that, because that’s a form of protest. If you’re not buying into the system, then the system can’t perpetuate itself.
Do you work primarily in the food tent?
Wherever people are needed the most at any time. No committees.
How’s the consensus going?
I don’t think there is. Maybe in the wintertime when the bad weather drives out a lot of the chaos. Right now, there are a lot of people just living here. We want to help everybody, but it’s really hard to organize. As people move into homeless shelters this winter, that will leave the core group here, and hopefully we can get a consensus.
Where are you from originally?
Illinois. Southern Illinois.
What’s the winter like there?
Well, hit or miss. It can get twenty below, or it can never snow. It just depends. Lately it has been pretty chaotic, though, for everybody.
But the Comfort station always has plenty of gear coming in, not just clothing, but tents. A lot of it’s brand-new, high-quality gear. It’s just a matter of having enough volunteers to keep it organized, because when it falls into chaos, people take off with it in bulk.
Oh, really? Has that been happening a lot?
Watch the piles. If someone walks away, yeah. People drag off a bunch of stuff. Not the people that are Occupy Wall Street, of course, but we’re in the middle of Manhattan. Considering everything, I think it’s going great. It hasn’t fallen apart, and that shows that the core here is strong. They’re not going to let the situation destroy it.
Can I give you a card and communicate by email? I’ll feel bad if I stay away too long. Yeah, this is a chaotic day, or I’d talk to you longer.
I totally understand. I’m surprised you wanted to talk at all.
Yeah, I was back there but it got too crazy, so I decided to work the perimeter for a while. ❖
Yvette
I’m here for the teachers. Stop laying off our teachers. This is for our children, our grandchildren, and the ones who are going to be coming up in the near future. That’s what I’m here for.
I got laid off three years ago when they decided to combine special ed with the regular ed. It was a big mess.
Education is so important, and they don’t seem to realize that. The first thing they want to cut is education. Why? That’s what built America. You continue to cut it and cut it, and make the students pay so much of a loan that it takes them years to pay back. I don’t think that’s fair at all, cutting off education. I believe that every child, regardless of special ed or regular ed, should have an equal right to learning.
How did you decide to throw in with the movement?
It was my husband’s idea. He just one day talked about, “Let’s go to the park.” Like everybody else listening to the media, I was like, “Are you out of your mind? Did you hear what they’re doing in there?”
The first night, I was scared. I’m not going to lie. Yes, I was scared. But when I woke up the next morning, I saw how many people were here for whatever different agendas they have. I saw that they’re fighting for what they believe in. I turned around and looked my husband in the eye, and I told my husband, “I can do this.”
I fought the Board of Ed for years. Since they didn’t want to hear me face-to-face, maybe they’ll hear us now. You cannot continue to cut education. What’s going to happen to my four-month-old grandson? Is he going to be able to become what he wants to become?
Whatever the American dream is, what happened to that? What happened to the people that we voted for? The promises that they made to get into office, and then they did a whole one-eighty. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth, but why can’t I get the same thing that everybody else is getting? You’re raising the M.T.A. You’re raising the health insurance. You’re raising student loans. You’re raising everything but the pay checks! Instead of raising the pay checks, you’re laying people off, and it gets to a point that the ones who are laid off—we can become homeless. That’s not fair.
Me, okay, I’m glad I’m here fighting for a cause, but I have nowhere to go. I’m sleeping in the park. It’s not cool—it really isn’t—but I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do for somebody to hear us.
Since your initial feelings of worry, how has the experience been?
I haven’t had any problems. I’m very careful who I talk to, and who I’m going to allow into my life. I’m not trying to get into anybody’s life. And I’m careful of who sleeps around me and my husband.
Who’s around you guys?
We have a couple here who came from Miami. We have a gentleman who . . . I haven’t gotten to introduce myself to him, so I don’t know where he’s from. We have another young man who plays the guitar. I don’t know what his agenda is, but it’s all the same thing. We all had jobs, and we all either got laid off or fired or quit or whatever, and we’re all homeless. In this area here—I don’t know about the rest of the park, but in this little area here—we’re homeless.
But you feel good about who’s around you?
Yeah. As long as they stay in their tent, and whatever problems they have, they deal with it in there.
What are your plans for the winter? Are you planning on staying?
Um, to answer that question as honestly as I could, if they’re here and they do whatever they have to do within twenty-four hours, I’d be glad to go someplace else. But if it doesn’t happen that way, yeah, I’m going to stick it out to the end.
Do you guys feel like you have the gear? You’re going to be comfortable?
Yeah, well, my husband is a wanderer, so . . . [Laughs.]
So he’s ready.
Yeah, he’s getting prepared for whatever needs to be done, so I have to support him.
How did you find yesterday? Did you get really wet?
I was cold, and being inside, especially in a small tent . . . after a while, it gets frustrating, you know what I’m saying? Like, “Aagh! Got to get out!” I became more or less claustrophobic at three in the morning, and I had to get out.
Was it still snowing then?
No, it had stopped snowing. The wind had died down and whatnot. They were giving us these little heating pads. I took about twenty of them, opened them up, put them together, and threw them in our tent.
And that worked.
Yeah. ❖