Recently I talked about the Occupy Wall Street Group becoming know as they took over the Pawnee County Courthouse lawn in Stillwater. The event corresponded with other protest across the nation as reported in many business news articles. The local protest lasted only a few weeks, both starting and ending without incident. Updating current news, I last reported in an article one morning, only to find out in the afternoon they had gone. This development first concerned me as I thought the local authorities had forced them to leave, this was backed up by reports from around the nation of police raids on other areas. I am happy to report that is not the case in Stillwater, the OWLS made a decision to leave in the interest of public welfare.
The last conditions I wrote about indicated bad weather had come in over the weekend, several tents had not survived. In an instant one could notice a tent expected to be used to have meeting and gatherings was sorely missing. The local leaders also had to think of more severe local weather moving in; the danger to those protesting was highly considered. A decision was made to stop the protest due to the adverse winter weather, unexpected when the protest was scheduled at the start. Mother Nature has been acting strange this year, taking risks with lives is not what the movement is about. Leadership as well as the politics of this situation is partly about management.
Contact made with them indicates there was no animosity between the local police or sheriffs deputies while the protest was going on. In fact, both groups were very cordial with each other, passing waves and smile between them. Perhaps it was the short time of protesting or the local law officers were just being on their best behavior but they were helpful in giving advice and concerns. There is no adverse reaction between these two groups due to any protesting, nor are there any considerations of such in the future. In the spirit of directing democracy, both sides play a part but neither has to have a fear or hatred for the other.
The Occupy group has had to rethink its next move, this due the early release of the lawn area. The courthouse protest was a positive experience, now there must be more movement forward by this group to keep the actions alive. Still active and seeking to make political changes in election results, the protestors are having problems with the competition found in freedom of speech rights. Competition from so many creative minds not willing to just settle but seeking the best results keeps them moving. Everyone having the ability to talk, everyone presents ideas, discussions then may not end at the end of the meetings. This leaves the question is how to move forward to continue being discussed.
The meetings being held are locally setup and open to public, no hiding meetings or the discussions as all residents are in this together. But even so they need to gain public awareness, one of the things I noted about the protest when writing the news articles. Cars would honk, cheers were given, but all this was only by a few. As I talked to people walking on the street and in local stores nearby, many did not even know there was an Occupy Stillwater group, much less there was a protest ongoing. It took nearly a week before the local news reached them, and just a soon the protest was gone. Had it stayed longer, there may have been more public awareness of both the group and the economic issues. This movement is be noticed, it has to gain more public awareness by those sub-groups not yet represented.
On that note, the representation is currently of Republicans, Democrats, Independents, young, old, etc… Adding more demographics can be done, but what really needs to be added is a specific plan and issues to discuss. Many do not even know the issues regarded by Occupy Wall Street or the local group. Having a large list of complaints to look over is time consuming and tiresome for many. But cutting the issues down will make individuals decide too early if they want to join. The local meetings must move to more discussions of issues and public awareness. Current to major issues accepted for support are economic concentration, the current state or lack of democracy, low wage employment conditions and the local community well-being.
They have determination to refocus their energies this winter and let the public become more aware of the groups presence and determination. But determination alone will not undue the political actions or the economic conditions we have. They understand this, therefore are in the process of deciding what actions to continue with.
Contact: Michael Pulse [email protected] Author of: The Truth of Things
Website: www.truth-things.biz CEO of Stone Rose LLC.