Waaay overdue UPDATES: It got complicated.
The last rally I had posted was difficult to pin down because the base camp for the occupation in Charleston that was located in Haddad Park (on Kanawha blvd) was not an agreeable place to city officials for whatever reasons they had. They sat down with the deputy mayor in good faith to work out where they might relocate. They expressed they have no intention to impede business or be a drain on city resources. Matter of fact they've already taken it upon themselves to do some trash patrols since this all began. Haddad's waterline had accumulated lots of trash floating down river prior to the occupation but they ran out of trash bags to get the job done completely. Davis park has rules closing it after dark that the mayors office agreed to waive. I think it's ultimately a much safer location for the occupiers and the visitors as well. It's also drawing more people to Capitol street businesses and some of the neighbors are glad to walk their dogs after dark without risking a fine.
There were complications with rally permitting last Saturday making it confusing for people to meet up with the rally. One permit was for part of the day, another permit for another part of the day, stipulations for stationary rally or moving march weren't clear, and well, these things happen among inexperienced. Clear decisions weren't stated days in advance & facebook was lagging badly. Some posts took as long as 4 hrs to register, others never went through. "Strange" was a comment from the computer geek who is chalking it up to bandwidth problems. The cross talk between occupier issues and rally location had muddied the water significantly, but despite that I counted 40 heads at one location and about 20 at another. The occupiers were tied up with logistics & sweeping up behind Haddad.
The nature of the confusion- as of thursday pm 20th the understanding was that Occupiers would have to move from Haddad to their new location in Davis Park (boxed by Lee, Capitol, Summers, Washington st) in downtown at 7pm friday but there was a snafu, the park was promised to a christening ceremony am Sat, so the city delayed the move to pm Saturday overlapping the rally. I and a few others dropped the rally in favor of ferrying over a carload of their gear to the new location & set up some tents after the party was all clear. At this point the occupiers had already been rained on for 2 days straight + precipitous declines in temps so they were run down but undeterred. The christening party heard the occupiers were following them and gave their blessing by donating all their party food. Dinner was solved. Mighty kind of them.
So much has been going on since Saturday it's hard to recall. There are meetings every night they call general assemblies (GA). Saturday nights meeting had notable guests native WV'ns will likely know well.
Allen Johnson of
Christians for the Mountains | Home came to lend his voice of support and encouragement to the cause. It's very rare to meet gentlemen like that in this day and age. He did a bit more than just applaud occupiers- he brought out his sleeping bag and slept outdoors without a tent overnight. That's a mountain man alright. My bones can't take that anymore, but hat's off out of respect.
I had a fascinating conversation with him and we compared notes about how eroded American communities have become since all these business philosophies/ paradigms have displaced all other human priorities. The every man woman and child plan isn't compatible with life. This conversation was happening with about 4 generations present so while putting all our stories in a time line it revealed a steady decline & loss of quality of life with no end in sight. I had a joke I forgot to tell. "Allen, you
might not rank a spot in my time management appointment book unless you can prove you're trickle up cost effective." Well, on second thought, it's just as well I forgot. Most WV'ns don't get my dry NY sarcasm.
Anyhoo, another notable character most will recognize was
Jesse Johnson of the Mountain Party lending his voice of support. He's traveling around this week with an independent studio film folks from San Fran with plans for documentaries in WV. Jesse and I were talking about how disenfranchised 3rd parties are in the 2 party system. I let him know he won that debate with Manchin & Raece hands down, THE most intelligent person at the table with meaningful solutions in hand, but... Raece was just too nutter to risk him winning. He told me (loosely paraphrased) if we stay stuck in the lesser of evils contest we've been in, it's only giving them permission to turn every election into a limbo contest lowering the standard to nothingness. I know he's right but I don't see a permanent way off the crazy train until the money cord is cut.
I mentioned the only campaign I've ever volunteered for in my life was for Independence/reform party Ross Perot, and expressed my wish that 3rd parties would have level ground based on nothing more than merits of debate. I changed registration from indie to Dem to vote for Hillary. He let me know I shouldn't feel pressured into registering dem or repub because laws were changed in WV. When primaries are held no matter what party you belong to you may vote for any- you aren't limited just to the party you're registered in primaries anymore. I've had to change registry so many years it became routine. A WV'n that made wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_J..._(politician)- I checked. No corporate money in his campaign. He told me he's invested most, if not all, of what he's made in his life to his cause.
He mentioned support for 99%/Occupiers is coming from
Up The Holler and Randi Rhodes (a liberal leaning radio show I've not heard before).
Randi Rhodes and rattled off a few other names I can't remember. The Pulse M(something) show. He's since come to a few meetings but most of the business they've been dealing with is logistics/ establishing security/ a means of maintaining hygiene. They break things up into work groups and get it done. This location is very nice but it's a little creepy knowing they're surrounded by security cameras 24/7. Perhaps if someone is looking for missteps they'll note the occupiers politely escorting any drunks stumbling into the park to wherever else they meant to go or sharing the food that gets donated with actual homeless that wander by. I'll post the good neighbor policy they set up as rules for themselves in another post.
The security guards for the neighboring buildings (BB&T, a county blg, etc) were very leery seeing them move into the park. Everyone assured them they have no intention of violence or destruction of property etc. Hard to convince one of them who was acting like rioters were gathering. He knows by now he doesn't have to worry. "Patience" (yes that's her real name) got him to crack a smile for 2 seconds. He might be smitten.
Oh speaking of notable guests, tuesday another WV'n who made it to wikipedia
Charlotte Pritt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Charlotte Pritt came to lend her support, encouragement, and suggestions. I was impressed by her warmth and intelligence. Unfortunately I was minding some technical chores and didn't have the chance to get into any in depth conversation with her. I hope she'll come by again soon.
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