I'm disappointed in myself for not making the connection earlier. Clearly the people protesting on Wall Street this weekend are the ones with means and opportunity. But there is a whole subsection of the population that has a bigger vested interested in the whole mess than college students and anarchists.
Not too many miles from Wall Street, there is a community in Lakewood NJ who probably would love both the opportunity to have their voices heard and probably a few free meals. On top of that, they have a lot of experience at "urban survival techniques" that they could probably share with protesters.
I'm talking about the tent city of homeless people in Lakewood. Its a community of homeless individuals who have been impacted severely by the very issues being protested on Wall Street right now. All it would take to get these people involved is probably the promise of transportation too and from the protest and they would get the opportunity to share their stories with the people speaking out about the problems.
And there are plenty of tend cities and homeless shelters and community outreaches who can communicate with these people. Use your networks of activist friends to see if unemployed and homeless people would come if offered a round trip. Not just in Lakewood, but everywhere.
These people have more than just bodies to add to the cause. They have some of the most compelling stories about why #OccupyWallStreet is necessary and those stories need to be told. They also have a lot of experience to share regarding off the grid living and resource utilization.
I know that for the "Rally to Restore Sanity" a number of liberal groups provided transportation from metropolitan areas to DC. Maybe a focused campaign to these same donors would yield some efforts to bring those most injured by Wall Street to a place where they can make their voices heard more clearly.
Arianna Huffington, this is pointed at you and your wealthy friends. Forget politics as usual... lets try something REALLY liberal. Lets try democracy 2.0.
I only fear one thing in this life, IGNORANCE! Good thinking! It's nice to see that we still have plenty of intelligent people out here to attempt balancing out all the idiocy that is so rampant.
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