I Occupied Wall Street

I finally did it.  I went to the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in Lower Manhattan today.  I was in town for a stamp show, and in the interest of killing two birds with one stone (metaphorically, of course - I'm an animal rights supporter), I went down to Zuccotti Park to join the protest.  That's right, I didn't go to take pictures, I went to lend my voice to the protests.  I even walked around carrying a sign.

While other demonstrators went around carrying signs decrying the war, corporate greed, and the lack of jobs, I carried around a homemade sign saying, "Save AMTRAK!"  Because, you must understand, Amtrak faces a possible sixty percent cut in funding by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which could be seen as a grudge against President Obama and his oft-thwarted plans for high-speed rail, but is actually the latest in a series of attempts by Republicans to gut and liquidate the national passenger railroad.  Republicans, of course, don't like any public amenity that serves the greater good - in this case, moving people efficiently - but does not make a profit. Obama wants high-speed passenger rail, but he's dealing with Republicans on Capitol Hill who mostly don't want passenger rail at any speed.    

My sign provoked interest, and  I even got a couple of people to ask about it. I explained Amtrak's situation to them, and I convinced them quite easily that a strong Amtrak would provide more jobs to Americans and help more people travel, as well as benefiting the public realm.  As I see it, it all ties in with the demonstrations against the consolidation of power and money by private interests.

I was surprised at how small Zuccotti Park was, because television footage always seems to make it look larger. It was supposed to have been cleared yesterday for a power washing that has since been postponed.  Ironically, the last time I had been on this block was four years ago, when I was at the plaza across Broadway from the park four years ago where Isamu Noguchi's sculpture Red Cube stands, and . . . the plaza around the sculpture was being power washed.

Zuccotti Park was jammed full of protesters, though, so it was not exactly a small group of embittered misfits. These people were workers, hipsters, young professionals, and ordinary people like myself demonstrating against the growing power of corporations and making it clear that we've had enough. (There was even a theater group performing, appropriately enough, Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot.)   As for my pet cause . . .  Bill Clinton was elected President in 1992 promising to modernize Amtrak but the Republicans took over the House of Representatives two years later and tried to kill it.  So I've seen this movie before . . . and I don't want to see it again.

I stayed for about twenty minutes, taking in the protests and the sloganeering, but I had to move on, as my time in New York was limited.  I think I got enough people to see my sign and think about how Amtrak is linked to their idea of a better America.  I think I made my point.

And I may go back. :-)