“This is our opportunity to make his dream a reality.”
Those words were spoken by Dennis Lucas, a member of Occupy Tacoma and one of the organizers of Occupy the Hood, at a candlelight vigil held in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Occupation Park.
The vigil began at about 7:15 PM on October 15th, slightly later than the scheduled 7:00 start. Occupiers lit candles and stood in a circle on the sidewalk by Pacific Avenue for a moment of silence followed by time of open sharing and discussion.
“When I was growing up,” explained Lucas, “I was more of a Malcom X fan. I didn’t get the whole non-violent aspect of [Dr. King's] movement. But as you grow up over a period of time and you start to learn and understand life, you realize that the only way to get anything accomplished would be through a non-violent protest.”
“I respect him for his bravery to be a forward thinker and understand that before most people did,” Lucas added. “We all know from being in this Occupy movement that dealing with aggression and not responding with aggression is a hard thing to do.”
“That’s what I believe this Occupy movement is actually picking up off of, from the civil rights movement. Because it’s all inclusive, the way Dr. King was. He started out championing for the rights of African Americans, and then progressed into championing for the rights of human beings. And that’s what we’re all about.”
“Martin Luther King talked about the idea of a beloved community, and I didn’t quite get that for a while,” said Jo Walters.
Walters went on to describe how she used to think that King was being very specific, referring to loving your neighbors and countrymen or love between the different races. “But it’s so much broader. What he’s talking about is a sense of humanity, seeing our entire community as beloved by all of us and feeling a sense of collective responsibility for each other.”
“I think that’s what the Occupy movement is doing: it’s helping to move his dream of a beloved community forward.”
Occupiers continued to share their thoughts, both about Dr. King and their visions of an ideal future. Most, if not all, of these idealized worlds reflected King’s own ideas in one way or another.
Toward the end of the event, Mike Ladd pointed to another Occupier’s sign, which included a photograph of King being arrested by two police officers in Birmingham, Alabama.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. being arrested in Montogomery, Alabama on September 4, 1958.
“In school,” said Ladd, “we hear about his nice black guy who fought for civil rights and got assassinated and how sad it was.”
“We hear about the I Have A Dream speech – it’s a beautiful speech – but we don’t read Letter From Birmingham Jail, we don’t read Beyond Vietnam and we don’t hear about the Poor People’s Campaign,” Ladd continued. ”I’m more partial to the image of Martin Luther King sitting in jail than I am to him giving a speech, because I think it gets to the essence of what he’s talking about.”
Ladd elaborated, describing how King had come to the conclusion that “the issues of race and civil rights [were] intimately intertwined with that of social class.”
“In many ways, we’re picking up where he left off.”
“We are the change we’d like to see in the world,” said Francesca Carreras-Velez. “This is it: this is happening, and it’s unstoppable.”
“And the only way we will be stopped is if we stop ourselves.”
For the last three months, I’ve been pretty heavily involved with Occupy Tacoma. It’s a movement I believe in, and a movement that I don’t think is going away anytime soon. Unfortunately, between my involvement in the movement, assorted client work and various personal crises (man, the plural for “crisis” really doesn’t look like a real word), I haven’t had a whole lot of time to work on personal videos.
That includes this one: an emotional montage of Occupy Tacoma’s October 15th march and rally, organized in conjunction with Occupy events all over the world for a global day of action. The rally concluded with the beginning of Tacoma’s physical occupation of Pugnetti Park, which Occupy Tacoma renamed Occupation Park.
With the movement on a bit of a slow pace, hampered by the dead of winter, I hope this look back at October will help reinvigorate some of those who have gone into hibernation mode until spring. And I hope everyone reading this, who lives anywhere near Tacoma, will come out to the Union Station Federal Courthouse on January 20th for our Occupy the Courts action. For more information on that and other future Occupy events, keep an eye on OccupyTacoma.org.
I love the holiday season. Whatever you may celebrate – or don’t celebrate – please take my “Merry Christmas” for what it is: a heartfelt wish of good cheer and warmth through the winter. Remember to spend a little time with your loved ones, be they family, friends, four-legged furballs or feisty fish. That, to me, is what this season is about – spending time with those you love. I’ll be spending today cuddling with my lovely Shannancy. I hope you enjoy our Christmas Carol, and I hope you have a very happy holidays, whether you celebrate Christmas or not.
Below you can find a list of resources for help, whether you’re struggling with suicidal thoughts or urges yourself, you know someone who has taken their life and you’re trying to cope, or you’re worried that someone may be headed that way. This is not a complete list by any means, so please, if you know of an organization or charity that addresses this issue, please send me a message with a link and I’ll add it here.
Occupy Tacoma initiated its first action eight days ago, on October 7, 2011. I went to this first march expecting no more than a couple dozen at most, a scattered handful being more likely. What I found, instead, was what The News Tribune reported to be around 200 people. I was shocked, and happily so.
Photo by NorthTacoma.net
I’m impressed that the Occupy Wall Street movement has spread as virally as it has. I just took part in my own local version, Occupy Tacoma. A local paper, The News Tribune, posted a blog during the march saying there were about 200 people present. That doesn’t seem like much, but…honestly, I expected a couple dozen at most. Tacoma isn’t a city known for protests. We’ve got Seattle to the North of us and Olympia to the South; those cities are protest magnets. Stuck in between the two, my own city doesn’t seem to get that active very often, probably because the more protest-minded citizens find larger groups to share their anger with elsewhere.
Occupy Tacoma looked different from Occupy Wall Street, as all the #Occupy events take different tactics. Some take all the legal measures, some take a more anarchistic approach, some get violent, some stay peaceful…the thing that impresses me, though, is the variety of people in the crowd.
A lot of people like to dismiss protests - any protest – because all they can see are “anarchist punks” or “lazy hippies”. This is already a poor mindset to have for any protest, but it’s especially inaccurate for the #Occupy events across the nation. At Occupy Tacoma, I saw people of all ages, all walks of life. Sure, there were folks there who would fit the stereotypes you’d expect at a protest. But there were all other types there, as well. And everyone there, whether they fit the idea of a “stereotypical protester” or not, was an American – more importantly, a human being (well, okay, there were some dogs as well) – who has grown sick of seeing the American dream kicked around by corporate interests.
Occupy Tacoma marches toward the Federal Courthouse. Photo by Adam J. Manley.
Those were my initial thoughts, as recorded on Google Plus. Since that day, I’ve taken part in community-driven planning meetings for the continuation of Tacoma’s arm of the #Occupy/99% movement. And today I was surprised to see even more people than last week show up to the march and rally we held today. Hundreds more turned out at People’s Park, marching down with us to an assortment of sites before ending with a rally at Tollefson Plaza. The energy was nearly sparking in the air.
Occupy Tacoma marches down Pacific Avenue after flooding Wells Fargo Plaza. Photo by Adam J. Manley.
After the rally, a smaller (but not insubstantial) portion of the protesters moved on to Pugnetti Park – which Occupy Tacoma has renamed “Occupation Park” – on 21st & Pacific, next to the Washington State History Museum. A barely known little thing that few even realize exists as they walk or drive along the side of it, it is now the site of Tacoma’s occupation. If you have any time in the coming days and weeks, take a few minutes, a few hours or even a few days, if you can, and join Occupy Tacoma in solidarity with the rest of the 99%.
The actual time it took to draw this out on the sidewalk in chalk was half an hour. Remember to vote for me to win King of the Web! Vote ten times a day, every single day. You get a bonus ten votes for every five days you use all your daily votes, so remember to vote for me with your bonus votes as well!
Come on, you know the alien invasion is coming either way. Might as well vote your extraterrestrial master democratically into his (my) role as monarch. Right? Right?
**IMPORTANT! The site you must register to vote at is kingofweb.com, not kingoftheweb.com, as I said in my video. Please spread the word on my error even as you spread the word of my mighty awesomeness!
