So I attended Occupy Santa Rosa on Saturday and it was thrilling to see some 3,000 people, from hippies to vets, from working class to blue oxfords all carrying the same message. My sign? "Class Warfare Now," which I'll attempt to explain in a bit. First some media reporting (from the Press Democrat):
A Santa Rosa woman who identified herself only as Darcy stood on the corner of First Street to protest the pending foreclosure of her house of 20 years. She and her husband both lost jobs and have been unable to negotiate lower payments, she said."I'm fed up. I'm totally fed up," said the woman, who described herself as an independent voter. "It's time to stand our ground."
A retired Santa Rosa teacher, Mauri Wilber, criticized the government for spending money on wars and Wall Street bailouts while ignoring schools.
Handling bankruptcies and tenant-side work, I see the impact of this economy on people first hand. Times are tough. But as the Occupy protests show, people are starting to understand that the very financial institutions that caused the meltdown, through greedy policies that were nothing more than inside-job gambling, are now profiting. At the same time, Republicans are demanding drastic cuts in government programs, and Democrats don't seem to care enough to do anything about it.
Mad as hell and not going to take it anymore? That's about the size of it.
