Wednesday, October 26, 2011

(VIDEO: "OccupyCanton" - HOW LONG CAN IT ENDURE?


#OccupyCanton Founder Micah Miller (a student at Kent State Stark) says that the movement is here to stay through the winter.

Pardon yours truly for being skeptical.

On a bright, sunny day with the temperatures in the 60s only about 30 people showed up to OccupyCanton's second event in a city that is a ghost down at high noon on a Saturday.

Yours truly was out of town on October 15th and was therefore unable to cover OccupyCanton's initial event.

While The Repository did cover the first event and reported about 100 participants, no one from The Rep appeared to be present this past Saturday.  The Report is told that the 100 figure was a generous count.

However, Stark County's participants can take comfort that they are part of a much larger movement with its focal point two blocks from Wall Street in New York City.  It began on September 17th.

There has been a lot of confusion as to what the movement is all about.  Here is a statement written and sent out by the organizers of Occupy New York City, to wit:
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, formerly divided by the color of our skin, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or lack thereof, political party and cultural background, we acknowledge the reality: that there is only one race, the human race, and our survival requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their brethren; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
 The SCPR shot extensive video of the event and has compiled a representation of what occurred on Saturday.

As indicated above, the SCPR is highly skeptical of this group's ability to sustain their protest.

The next event is set for Sunday of this week inasmuch as Miller says he does not think OccupyCanton can compete with CantonMcKinley/Massillon football.

It appears to The Report that Miller is engaging in an exercise of kidding himself. 

Saturday, October 22, 2011:  a very nice day weather wise and The Ohio State University Buckeye football team was on a bye week.

Things do not get much better than that, right?


No comments: