I am a curious guy. Always have been. I ask a lot of questions. My curiosity has lead me to track down and learn all that I can about the world directly around me. The May Day protests, Occupy LA, the riots after the OJ verdict (I went and saw them first hand) I just have a need to see what the score is in person. When the May Day protests were going on in downtown Los Angeles, I had to check it out. There I saw hordes of distressed people who felt an injustice and were standing together to try and do something about it. I didn't feel their plight personally, but it was real as evidenced by the conviction with which they could collectively chant for Immigration Rights. No one gave me any grief there. Any and all that I asked, would if they could, tell me what the goals were. Contrast that with what I found when I made my first visit to the Occupy LA protests. There I truly felt like Pinocchio when he arrived on Pleasure Island. The sounds of sex coming from the tents, the never ending, ever present aroma of Marijuana coming from drum circles, "Dr's giving "Medicine" away for free @ 4:20 all weekend" and heck just the people who are smoking weed on the steps of City Hall. Couple that with the dancing girls shaking it hard in the drum circle, and I could see how getting turned into a donkey here could be a lot of fun. But stuff here just doesn't make sense. Young college aged kids on their iPhones, wearing NIKE shoes, waiting for free Sbarro Pizza, while mumbling incoherently about how corporations are the root of the evil that has beset their rights as human beings. And where are the protesters? I mean the real ones, not the bums who came over from Skid Row. There are tons of signs littering the ground, but none of the encamped protesters were walking around holding them up. So why are these folks here? How does this tiny, disruptive, group pull it off to stay on the previously lush lawns that surround City Hall? It has gotten around that if you have a political message on your stuff the police can't legally move it. Which is just one of the many untrue pieces of information that passed for knowledge at Occupy LA. I decided that since this is why they got to stay, I just had to read as many of the statements as I could. While maneuvering between the tents, I learned which tents celebrities should go in to find "Celebriweed", plenty of Marxism, Socialism, Communism, Gay Rights, broad anti corporation messages, and of course the now omnipresent "99%". This pointed out the most obvious and one of the biggest problems for this divergent group. Occupy LA doesn't have a collective message. Speaking to the people that were pointed out to me as the "leaders", my rather benign questions to them were slowly answered and quickly ignored. Simple things like "How come your donation/expense boards have not been updated in 14 days" Blank stares."Why are you here?" "Cause we need change" "Why isn't anyone standing by the road holding up protest signs?" Nothing. I was told that my questions were "exhausting them". Another thing about Occupy that I found dodgy and very much like summer camp, everyone here has two names. Joe, Mark and Patty have morphed into new alter egos Dump truck, Nugget and Sunshine. Anytime you use fake names= some scandalous bullshit too me. Anyone could get up and yell about whatever slight was affecting them that day. At one point, I happened to be standing with the movements "Librarian" and a band of drummers and musicians came through the center of the camp. They were dancing and beating their skins holding up signs imploring America to give back California to Mexico. 'This cant be right" I thought to myself. "All these Americans cant be standing around supporting this cause. Can they?" I asked aloud. I was told to "Shut up and enjoy the music." The only time they want anyone to shut up is when they are being asked questions. It actually made sense to me now, Occupy LA does not want a cohesive message. Their goals are as vacant as can be, otherwise Summer Camp ends and they have to go home to mommy and daddy.  I really wanted to find some area I could help in. Spray painted tents with "Political parties," "FUCK Lobbyists", "The Industrial Revolution", "Credit" All these issues piss me off. I don't feel that I have any control over them, but I could at least try. And that's when I saw the instance where I am the 1%,. Apparently the Rose Parade is now something to Occupy. Yes the tyrannical Rose Parade (Disclosure- I have been a member of Tournament Of Roses for a few years now) was finally going to get what it had coming. Which to me shows that they don't plan on ending this nonsense until at least the beginning of next year. Good news for the reporters that had been covering the Conrad Murray trials just two blocks away, at least they don't have to go far to find the bullshit that makes up most of their evening broadcasts. Of course I could be wrong on all this, so tune in to this weeks episode and hear first hand as I bring in one of the only people I could find from the movement to defend it themselves. Thursday 6:00 PM PST @ www.myndr.com |
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