BREAD AND CIRCUITS

Last weekend I was in New York, winding things up with my mother’s apartment, so I thought I’d take a walk down to Wall Street and check out the occupation. I didn’t have any expectations, really, though I thought of it as a protest, and as such assumed I would be participating in a protest. What I found was an encampment, which makes sense. I was visiting the protestors at their home. It was 10 at night. My daughter X accompanied me. She is a nurse, and 25 years old. This is her generation, and her profession is at the forefront. Nurses were among the first and most vocal supporters of the Occupations. Nurses, teachers, transportation workers. Many of the same people who turned out in Madison.

The park is a concrete square with few trees, and is packed cheek to jowl with people. Because it was night people were sleeping, eating, milling about. It was about what you would expect. I have slept out on the street for days waiting for tickets to London (Freddy Laker, 1978!), or for a concert, and it has that feel, with makeshift tents and shelters. The night was warm and dry. I imagine earlier in the week things were much more difficult. There are free clothing boxes, sorted by type of clothing, and a kitchen. Hand lettered signs soliciting ideas for change are posted, and have outlines of policy positions or demands (Forgive student loans; debt relief; tax the rich; free medical care…etc). I had heard that they were not allowed to use amplification but didn’t realize they had adapted to this ban by calling for ‘sound checks’. A person yells, “Sound Check” and starts to speak, whether it is an announcement (Will the person who left a green sweater at the food stand please claim it….), or a policy statement. This message is then repeated by others in the crowd so those in back can hear.

It was very dark. I felt a bit like a tourist, not a protester. I was there to register my support somehow, but this is not an organized event. There were no petitions to sign or leaflets. X was not really there for any interest she had, though we later talked about nursing, and how at her hospital there is no union, and how this negatively affects her job. She would like a union but anyone talking about unions or meeting with union reps is immediately fired. She wants single payer health insurance, but doesn’t know much about how health insurance is administered or how doctors are actually paid. She knows that the anesthesiologists she works with live in gated communities, drive $80,000.00 cars, have stay at home spouses, and complain that a single payer plan would reduce their income. They ask, “Why should we suffer?” I suggested that the rest of us, who are not anesthesiologists, are asking the same thing: why should we suffer so they can be so rich? A doctor’s job ought to be a good job, a well-paid job, but if reducing a specialist’s compensation means ordinary people get health coverage, that seems like a small price to pay. And by the way, I am happy to pay higher taxes if it means no one will go without health care. I mean NO ONE.

While we were there a businessman from England in a 3-pieces suit asked me what it was all about. I said I couldn’t speak for the people there, but I gave him my reasons, and we had a long discussion about taxes, health care and about the way American politics and policy have changed in the past 65 years. I doubt I changed his mind, but I felt then like I was a participant, that the point of an occupation, as opposed to a demonstration, is to create a space where a certain kind of debate can unfold. People go there to learn, to formulate, to agitate, to provoke. They are educating themselves, and they are educating the country. We don’t have a political culture any more, we have Bread and Circuits. Now it is time to turn it around, to take back, to redistribute, TO CHANGE THE CONVERSATION. They can say, on the right, all they like, that we are out to kill jobs, that we are communists, or grubby, smelly, dirty long haired hippies. But no one is listening. No one cares what they have to say. The right wing is becoming irrelevant, fast. And I think the confrontations will become more frequent and more intense.