September 15, 2019
Walking past Zuccotti Park the other night we recalled the pop up rebel movement known as Occupy Wall Street that filled the block eight years ago this week. Memories of people camped out in this downtown space bubbled up – the kind folks dishing out donated food, everyone getting soaked in the rain, the recently or still unemployed victims of the Great Recession, periodic NYPD sweeps, drummers playing on five gallon paint buckets, the snarky media coverage (“what do they even want?”), and the signature OWS human megaphone developed to comply with City noise regulations. They were the 99%.
The issues they addressed – cyclic market crashes that fall most heavily on the poor and working classes; skewed political agendas funded by big donors; extreme wealth and income inequality; and a biased system of Justice favoring the 1% – remain to this day. The big banks who arguably caused the crash got bailed out. Homeowners hoodwinked by shady mortgage brokers working on commission got sold out – and lost the very roofs over their heads.
Now, with talk of another recession in the air, it just might be time to reoccupy Wall Street.
