10-13-11 Occupy Austin

In a previous post, I had mentioned that homeless people have to ‘kill’ time and I had some time to kill this afternoon.  Thus, I choose to see what the latest was for Occupy Austin.

The crowd is smaller and appears to be more party oriented along with more of the new ‘hippies’ in attendance.  Clearly it is a younger crowd, which is good to see and yet for credibility, I would say it’s not the right people to represent a new movement.  That’s probably what they said in the 60’s…lol

I saw a lady with a tog on that read “Media”.  I immediately went to her and poised this question:

“Can you tell me what the current objectives are for Occupy Austin is?”

“It you go to the web site, it’s archived there and you can read it.”

“Is there anyone here that can tell me?”  I asked a bit annoyed by her answer.

“It’s on the web site…”

“In another words, NO?”

“If you stick around for the 7 PM lecture, you can find out.  I only know what is current at 11 AM and 7 PM.”  With that, she walked away.

Either she really didn’t know what what was going on which does not say much for her as media person or for the group.  Or, since I wasn’t from the “Media”, she didn’t want to waste time with me.  Whatever the case was, it was not a good response.

As I listened and talked to various people, it was clear that each one of them wanted change and what very little they could do was of great value to the movement.  They acknowledged that there is a good deal of disagreement among the members, but when there is agreement on something, then the whole group supports the agreement.

While at the event, word was announced that a ‘clean sweep’ was going to happen soon by the police.  It was a false alarm for Austin, but clearly not for Houston.

Tensions rose quickly during the few minutes of gossip.  I was, however, very pleased by the quick ‘fact’ check that happened by members of the group.  As soon as they heard from key city officials that nothing was going to happen, they yelled it out to the group several times to make sure everyone knew what was happening, what the ‘facts’ were.

There is hope for the organization yet!