Occupy Austin Day 23

Plaza Occupation RIP

"If you take a house and put a bunch of shit on it, then add more shit, then every year add more and more shit, what are you gonna end up with? A big pile of shit."  Sam

Today is the day we found out the APD Chief Art Acevedo is just another slime-ball, like the rest of the fascist ilk. His slick speech on Thursday night about how he supports us blah, blah, blah was met today with what is basically an eviction notice. He came around  to pass out the fliers himself. There were so many rules, they will be impossible to follow. For example, everything has to be moved once a day, such as the food table, so it is not a "permanent" structure, and any sign not being held when they show up to fuck with us, will be confiscated and tossed. Then the power washes will resume three times a week, which means the freezing cold plaza will be soaked with water between 3am and 5am, and don't think you can evacuate to the island, because the park curfew is now enforced after 10pm.

Chief Pig Art Acevedo wearing the official fascist uniform.

Then there were enough other rules to keep the GA meeting arguing until late in the night, with some vowing to do nothing but stay there and Occupy-which is unfortunately not a radical idea, but just fucking lazy. It's funny that no matter how hard I rack my brain, I don't remember one Tea Party protester ever being evicted from a town hall meeting when they stood in the middle of it, waved their arms and did nothing but disrupt the entire thing while a democratic senator was trying to speak about delivering healthcare to everyone. But look how many OWS protesters have been removed from every meeting, park, plaza or "town hall" for just standing up to complain about their plight, which is real and not manufactured by the propaganda machine. The police brutality forced on the innocent people who can see through the fascist lies is unspeakable.

The sad truth is-the plaza scene-our little sideshow is over, and is over in much of the country. What is amazing is how slick that little greased pig Acevedo managed to move us along. It never occurred to some of us, including me, that have never experienced the psychological part of crowd control, only brazen force, exactly how it was going to be used against us. But this was a typical fascist technique we should have recognized: smile while you fuck 'em over good. Now we have a choice to physically engage them, which will last for about 5 minutes before we get beaten and gassed and handed a police record the fascists can use to forever lock us out of society, or we can get worn down by constantly moving our shit around to appease King God Acevedo, so we finally get fed up and leave on our own. Nothing like rearranging the chairs on the Titanic to keep you from causing any trouble.

Meanwhile, the Koch brothers, who are two of the wealthiest men in the world, will spend billions to defeat Obama and once that's done, will attempt to install a fascist dictator into our government in the next election, which we are only a presidential election away from having. This news comes as dirty tricks by the GOP will prevent 25% of African-Americans from voting in the next election, and the fascist money flooding to the corporate media will brain-wash us into believing that having our throats cut by big business is good for us. Do you really think the corporate media, from Rockefeller Center to Main Street USA, that stands to make  millions from the corporate "citizens" in the upcoming election cycle, will be on our side? Hell, no.

All of this news about dissolving the Austin camp follows on the heals of more arrests in Nashville, where the camps are being cleaned out, and the order in New York for the protesters to give up their generators and gasoline, which provide power and heat. So, the camps, which just yesterday thought were getting a reprieve, and that the fascists were backing up because they had a heart, are continuing to get demolished and demoralized, but just in a nice way. For some reason, this new tactic is even more demoralizing and causes the protesters to seethe with anger even more than if we had our day in the ring with these fuckers.

In reality, the camps could not last forever, and in America, to be seen is to be heard, so they had to be cleaned up. The fascist state cannot tolerate anyone making a complaint or wandering around homeless and upset because they've been picked clean by our system. But true to what a grass roots movement is, the anger is stronger and will only grow. Cut us off at the top and the roots just get deeper. This is real grass roots, not the AstroTurf of the Tea Party. I believe the camps should be allowed to remain and dissolve on a consensus vote by the occupiers, which is coming anyway, because most of the people involved in the camps have little or no real-life management skills. I had to laugh last night when I heard one of the young protesters say the reason the number of protesters was thinning was that, "people were afraid to come and learn from our young minds."

That statement gave me pause, because I know the idea that if you are young, you are smarter than everyone else, is widely believed in our society, and not just by rebellious teenagers. The idea came from advertisers who make young people think they are in control of their lives and smarter than everyone else just because they follow a colorful slogan to the store and buy a certain pair of jeans or phone. After 50 years of it, the idea is ingrained in our culture and works so well because young people are foolish with their money, and the advertisers tell them they are "smarter" to spend it. "Smart" phone, anyone? So, of course, the young think they're smarter if they all own the same jeans or phone because that's what the fascists on Madison Avenue told them. This constant manipulation of our thought processes from birth is what is used to give the fascists power. Just follow the colorful slogan and everything will be OK.

This idea, that a certain group of people with no experience and little education are in control, or "smarter", has a corrosive effect on the unity of our society. For example, older people, with years of experience, are not hired, and pushed out of society to the detriment of our country. This is a country where older people cannot get jobs because they don't have their head buried in an iPhone all day. They are considered too dumb for even the most basic work even when they have years of experience doing it or advanced college degrees.

But to be fair, the Occupy movement has generally been inclusive of everyone, including the older folks, but you can see from last night's meeting that the youngsters were in charge, and they've fired or pushed out the older people who were running some things. Maybe it's because, like the young man believed, the old people are afraid of learning things from all those "young minds." But in reality, too many of those young minds at the plaza are not in control of anything due to an absolute inability to organize or get anything done besides spout off a lot about a system in which they don't have a voice or knowledge. Add the cold weather, and even the true protesters who braved the cold the night before, had left it to the "brains" of the outfit.

The entire camp has become a homeless shelter populated by a few who really want to be involved, but can't get traction due to how things have degenerated. Still, there were some great speeches last night, including a beautiful one by my young friend Kendall, who has soaked up this movement like a sponge, and who I am so proud of. Hopefully, he will go on to college in order to flourish in this world, even though it will mean taking on massive amounts of debt that will put him way behind his peers, most of who will become a cog in the wheel of the fascist machine. But Kendall, if he holds true to his values and keeps an open mind, has great things ahead.

Now that the lunatics are in charge of the asylum, it's time to dig deeper into the movement. Instead of spending time writing about what is going on at the plaza, I am going to volunteer in the Occupy community and become more involved in this movement in which I still strongly believe. This "occupation" brand of civil disobedience is pushing us further to the fringe where we can be ignored or taunted. Just today, a man about 30 stormed up to the steps and demanded everyone take this crap off his city's property. Then he stormed off. This man is the type who would stand by while our skin was being stripped off by a pair of pliers. One would hope people like that don't outnumber us, but they do. So we must work against them on the national stage, on their turf, with intellectual arguments, which they don't and will never have on their side. We will never accomplish anything by wandering aimlessly around a makeshift camp hoping for a cigarette or a slice of pizza.

Believe me when I say there are heroes in the local movement that exists on that plaza, especially the women, like Jamie, who leads the night marches every night at 9:30, and is constantly coming up with ideas to get more people to the plaza. I can still hear her chant and never again will I hear a call to action that carried more conviction and came from deeper in the soul than when Jamie shouted, "This is what democracy looks like," over and over until she lost her voice. And other women, like Michelle, who worked the welcome desk all day, then was disheartened to see the food line of hungry homeless form faster than she could get across the plaza to get a slice of cold pizza. People like Michelle and Jamie and a host of others did without a lot to keep the scene together. And to all those folks, I am deeply indebted. But when our main focus becomes dancing around a bunch of rules made up by disgusted fascist suits, that are designed specifically to trample on our right to peacefully assemble, fuck it. Mean is ingrained in our culture and has been since the days when the puritans believed if you were sick or poor it was your punishment from God and you did not deserve help. And if you didn't fit into their rigid view of society, which changed depending on who was in charge, you were burned alive at the delight of the others. Sound familiar?

The Occupy movement has changed me as a person. I am enlightened, tolerant and genuinely love the people I've met, who enjoyed exchanging ideas with me. For the first time in years, I had conversations with people who had open minds and not minds moldy from age or slammed shut years ago because of some prejudice or another they are not even aware they have. I enjoyed talking to people interested in what I had to say, and also being interested in what they had to say. We let our ideas soak in and not just roll off all the layers of preconceived notions. The Occupy movement is and will continually be fun and interesting, but to be effective we must change our tactics. That is what political movements are about, and like it or not, this is a political movement.

Yesterday, I brought a sleeping bag donated by my neighbor, Tom S., to the plaza and gave it to Sam, a middle-aged African American man who has become my friend, although he occasionally asks me if I am going to kill him, which I assure him I'm not because, why would I waste my tobacco and a perfectly good sleeping bag on somebody I was going to kill? But, his troubling questions aside, he was very appreciative. He has nothing except the clothes on his back and gets cold and lonely at night, just like everyone else. Just like you do.

Today will be my last day on the plaza, but I am attending the march to the capitol at 4 pm and will attend every organized march thereafter. And I will continue to put my energy, money and time into this cause, that has risen haphazardly without the use of millions of dollars of dirty money from the propagandists such as Fox News, the Koch brothers or Dick Armey's Freedomworks. We are the people, and the Occupy movement will continue. Who knows how long the plaza will be occupied? But I'm afraid the sideshow is drawing to a close and it's time for the carnival to reside in the back of our collective consciousness. But it is also time to bring the fight underground, where we can work and think without trying to survive the elements or having some crazy bitch screaming about someone stealing her whatever.

Now it is up to us-the older and educated people with experience who can put a professional face on this movement and begin to work through the established power structure as well as the young idealists who have the energy and optimism essential to any political movement. But there has to be some guidance and organization. I have seen so many young people in this movement try to reinvent the wheel, unaware the US does have a system to be heard, albeit confusing and complicated. And while it doesn't cost money to break windows, it costs A LOT of money to change opinion through a structure that, like it or not, includes working with the corporate press. So we have to raise money. That is how America works. At this point the occupy movement reminds me of someone sitting on the roof of a car instead of the driver's seat and getting pissed because the car isn't taking them anywhere.

So as I walk into the plaza today, I know this movement, that came into the world kicking and screaming like a child born in a cabin somewhere in the darkest woods, will grow up and walk into the sunlight and become a powerful force that will conquer the fascist demons that have pillaged the countryside. Now is the time to roll up our sleeves and stop sitting around the plaza waiting for food to arrive without even taking the trouble to hold up a homemade, worn out and illegible protest sign while being fish-eyed by the fascist tools. It is disgusting to see everyone grovel at the feet of the fascist police so they won't run us off, which they eventually will do anyway.

The "Occupy" part of the movement on its surface is also faltering because many in the US like to see people in pain, especially when the power structure they dared to challenge crushes them. This allows the coward to say, "See I told you so."  But oddly, while we look at pain and torture as a source of satisfying entertainment, we sit in our homes scared to death we will be the next victim. I'm sure there is a psychological term for that, but it escapes me-oh yeah, it's fear manufactured by the fascist corporate media. It keeps you in the house watching the TV so you'll watch commercials and buy more crap. That's how a cult-and most western religions work. They keep you afraid so you won't leave the fold. The bogeyman, or devil, is waiting just around the dark corner. The sheep will always fall in line once the big scary sheep dog starts nipping at their haunches.

The number of people who laugh at, criticize and taunt the homeless and sick in our country is truly amazing. I've seen it now. But I have also seen the light, and I am not going back. I am a warrior for what is right and what will be right for our democracy. But tonight, after the march, I am going home to play with my dog, catch up on some reading, stuff my bong with the best bud I can find, and wait for my marching orders from the part of the Occupy movement which is now moving to create real progress instead of a sideshow. It is easy to find, just go to the resources section of Occupy Austin and signup as a volunteer.

Thanks everyone for reading this blog over the past 3 weeks. My personal and spiritual growth experienced through the movement is amazing and life-affirming. I was dead inside and now I am alive again. I love everyone I've met and I know together we will make a change, but I am moving to a bigger battlefield that is not surrounded by slimy police who are not the 99%, and people who do things like vandalize city property or steal from each other. And for the young people involved in the movement who are still hanging around the plaza and not doing anything-read some God-damned books.

Whose street? Our street! Remember that? The plaza was our boot camp. We must follow our hearts and tell people every day to do their part to stop the the fascists from rolling over us. There is no second act-this is it. Move your money to a credit union, shop locally, support local farmers, don't buy anything made in China and look who is behind all the propaganda you hear. America is in no danger of  becoming a socialist or communist state like the propagandists want you to believe. But we are in danger of becoming a totalitarian fascist state run by billionaires-and we are on the edge. That, you can believe. Let's all work for the better of each other and this country and stop trying to strip others of dignity and then laughing when we do. Do you want to continue to be that country? Do you? If that is the case, may God have mercy on us all.

Who is the biggest threat to your freedom?

Update: While we were on the 4pm march the fascists took a lot of sleeping bags and personal items and threw them away. Then at 12:30 am on Sunday morning, they raided the camp, arrested our main spokespeople and about 20 others and confiscated our food and food tables. Power washing began at 2am Sunday morning and there were more arrests for a total of 38 . Denver was also raided tonight in a brutal display of fascist terror on a small group of flimsy tents and freezing cold people. Portland camp was raided also, along with Tampa.  Fuck the fascists. We are down, but not out. We got the nation's attention and found out who the cowards are. And best of all, we can clearly see the preposterous bullshit forced on us by our political system that is ready to demean, beat and arrest us rather than help us. The sides are clearly drawn. It's the people of the United States vs. the investment banks and the military industry that owns our government. So now, the real work begins.