{"id":2416,"date":"2011-11-11T14:19:29","date_gmt":"2011-11-11T19:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=2416"},"modified":"2011-11-11T14:48:48","modified_gmt":"2011-11-11T19:48:48","slug":"zuccotti-park-is-melting-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=2416","title":{"rendered":"Zuccotti Park Is Melting In The Dark . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

(With all due apologies to those of you who enjoyed the 1960’s ballad “McArthur’s Park”.) Actually, with the cooler autumn weather coming in, the refrain should become “freezing in the dark”.<\/p>\n

But seriously, I finally got down to the Manhattan financial district to have a look at Occupy Wall Street<\/a>. Which of course is actually located three blocks north of Wall Street in Zuccotti Park, near the fallen and now re-rising World Trade Center complex. <\/p>\n

I have a few comments about what I saw, but I know that you first want to see the pix! So here they are:<\/p>\n

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More follow! Click at right to open them.<\/p>\n

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And last but not least, some personal and political commentary from OWS:<\/p>\n

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My impressions? First off, the park is smaller than I would have imagined. Second, the whole scene is rather sedate. I didn’t see all that many of the people actually doing the “occupying”; I saw a lot more plastic tents, photographers and tourists like myself, and police, as opposed to real occupiers. A handful of them surround the perimeters collecting donations, handing out literature, and chatting with anyone interested. But Zuccotti Park doesn’t appear to be teeming with occupiers; and those that were there weren’t doing very much. There were no marches or chanting, very few placards being held, no clenched-fist singing of L’Internationale<\/a>. “Enslaved masses, stand up, stand up, the world is about to change its foundation . . .”<\/em> Perhaps the cool weather (in the low 40s) put a damper on spirits. <\/p>\n

Third, despite their overwhelming presence, the NYPD is not being obnoxious (hey, a lot of cops are probably getting overtime ’cause of this, so why should they want it to end). There is a movable rail perimeter around the park, but no one bothers you on the sidewalk. It seems like just another Manhattan tourist attraction, with plenty of people like myself taking pics. Fourth, the signs and placards that are visible indicate an eclectic mixture of concerns, most prominently student loan burdens, organized labor gripes, and military veterans issues. <\/p>\n

And interestingly, there is a quotient of capitalist entrepreneurship going on amidst the occupation. A handful of vendors have custom-made buttons and T-shirts for sale at tables placed alongside the occupiers; you know these were made in China and imported by some multi-national corporation. I paid $3 for a “I’m The 99%” button! <\/p>\n

And so, the surrounding temples of international capitalism and private wealth (as propped up by federal government rescue funds taken from taxes paid by the 99%) in lower Manhattan hardly have anything to worry about. Construction of the new World Trade tower complex just a block or so to the north proceeds unaffected. <\/p>\n

And yet, despite my lack of enthusiasm for the “occupy” approach and philosophy, I couldn’t help but feel sympathy when being up close to it. I actually left a few bucks in the collection bucket and waved supportively to those manning the fence. I couldn’t help but sympathize when seeing the occupiers up close (what few I did see). They are trying to change the world; it probably won’t change much, but you gotta give them credit for coming together and trying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(With all due apologies to those of you who enjoyed the 1960’s ballad “McArthur’s Park”.) Actually, with the cooler autumn weather coming in, the refrain should become “freezing in the dark”. But seriously, I finally got down to the Manhattan financial district to have a look at Occupy Wall Street. Which of course is actually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2416"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2425,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416\/revisions\/2425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}