Saturday, Feb. 4, was a long day when it came to public transportation. Between going to the basketball game at the Verizon center and traveling to the Folger William Shakespeare Library in the afternoon, I spent a solid few hours sitting on buses and metro trains.
And while these rides would have been lengthy on a typical day, Saturday’s trips were lengthened due to the numerous detours the bus drivers needed to take to avoid the commotion surrounding the Occupy D.C. protest in McPherson Square. After blocking off a large number of the surrounding streets, D.C. and National Parks Service police attempted to enforce a ban on camping that the Parks Service had invoked. Although they emphasized this was not an eviction, the move brought both sides even closer toward an eventual confrontation.
As controversial as the politics surrounding the protesters’ right to stay are, what struck me most was a phone call that I overheard. During the call, a woman who had just finished work spoke about the delay we experienced and the scene we saw as we drove by McPherson Square.
The woman was neither upset nor supportive, but she expressed curiosity about the protests. Now, that caught my attention. I could not help but notice that her uniform hardly seemed of the “one percent.” No Brooks Brothers suit, no designer shoes, just a plain, navy blue shirt with her name embroidered on the front. Here was a working-class woman, the very kind that the Occupy movement claims to represent, but she did not know the Occupiers’ cause or purpose. This led me to wonder just how effective Occupy has been in its goal to represent the 99 percent, and whether a different strategy would have brought them more influence.
As one of the last Occupy movements to exist in the nation, we have to admire the McPherson protesters’ tenacity. But when does resolve turn into stubbornness? As the general public comes to view the Occupiers as permanent fixtures, the efficacy of the protest slowly diminishes. If the message hasn’t been spread to a woman who likely rides the same bus past the site on her daily ride to and from work, it seems like their goal of spreading awareness and representing the 99 percent has failed.
If the Occupiers are not careful, they will fade until they become another short-lived phase of American history. Their presence stirred the media months ago, but in the time since their voice has weakened to a whisper. Far from representing the interests of the disenfranchised, the Occupy camps degenerated into something much less attractive. As Parks Service workers attempted to check the site for camping violations, they wore yellow hazmat suits due to the unsanitary conditions. There were even reports that some of the more hard-line protesters had left bags of human feces scattered throughout the camp as “presents” for the officials to find. That kind of childishness is hardly the picture of a movement to be taken seriously.
Our generation grew up listening to stories about the civil rights movement of the ‘60s, but we never heard about the—admittedly boring—details regarding the importance of organization and message control. As a result, the Occupy protestors harbor the false impression that the only requirement of a protest is showing up. Most people have no idea that Rosa Parks was not just a tired seamstress traveling home at the end of a long day, but a long-term member of the NAACP who had years of experience with activism. Her decision was carefully thought out and planned along with her fellow local leaders. Following her arrest, a cleanly organized Montgomery bus boycott established a concrete course of action that united a community and eventually the nation.
This is what the Occupy movement lacks—a coherent and unified set of goals it would like to meet in order to achieve greater economic freedom. The movement did successfully bring the issue to the American public’s attention for a brief period of time. The movement, however, has fizzled. Now almost completely out of the limelight, their window of opportunity is almost gone. If the Occupy protesters truly wish to be heard, they need to change their tactics from passive protest to actively searching for a compelling solution. Unless this happens, the next few years will only leave more people like the woman I overheard on the bus asking, “Occupy? What’s that?”
You have occupied my heart, SG