When I was at Trader Joe’s on Tuesday, I bought baby beets to add to my salads because I have recently discovered my love for beets. These babies gave my otherwise plain salads a bit of a kick.
After my salad, I headed to school, which is where my day took an interesting turn. I had been keeping track of what has been going on with the Occupy Wall Street protests since they began, but a friend and I decided to take a trip down there to see what was going on. Wednesday’s protest was supposed to be the biggest one yet, because various labor unions were joining in.
Occupy Wall Street protests started on September 17, with about 1,000 protesters marching through the streets of New York proclaiming that they are the 99% that will not longer tolerate the 1%. That regular Americans should not have to struggle to make ends meet when there is so much greed and corruption going on, on Wall Street, in our financial sector and in the government.
While I think their message is spot on with what is going on in our country, I’ve come to see, firsthand, that some of the actions being taken to spread this message are not that great.
When we got downtown, the police presence was overwhelming. I’ve been to plenty of outdoor events in New York City, but I have never seen so many police officers, in one place, at one time.
The protesters were contained to the sidewalks of Broadway, with barricades keeping them off the street to allow traffic to get by.
The closer to Wall Street we got, the vibe of the protest began to change. The protesters closer to City Hall Park seemed fairly calm, carrying their signs, but the people at the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway were a whole different story.
People had climbed up on the scaffolding and were pretty much taunting the cops with their chants. They were also trying to get onto Wall Street, whose entrance had been barricaded shut with cops manning both sides of the barricades.
Since you could feel the tension building in the air, we decided not to stay and made our way out of there and onto the subway. When I got home, I immediately got on my computer to see what was going on, only to find that in the place where I had stood not half an hour earlier, the police and protesters came to blows when protesting started rushing the barricades.
Honestly, I am a little disappointed. If you follow the #occupywallstreet hash tag on Twitter, you see people calling for peaceful protest, which is something, I feel, they failed at today. Don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of people is protesting peacefully, but there are small groups that I feel are ruining it for everyone. The media only shows the negative parts, which turns people off from the movement.
And those are just my two cents about the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Have a great Thursday! Only one day until the weekend!
What are your thoughts on the occupy Wall Street movement?
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