Friday, October 7, 2011

SIGNUP / Stand up

(I’m dashing off this note from the Apple Store in the middle of a cab shift on Friday morning.)


SIGNUP -- HumanbannerSF.com

Lots of you on this list have been to one of our beach events before. You can now register for October 29 -- and if you can come that day, please DO register -- at humanbannersf.com. Please know that the site is as yet incomplete, but I’m getting it in shape. There will be more information posted on the website (in the next few days), but those of you who have attended in the past know the basic drill. The only significant new wrinkle is that, this time, if we don’t have 2,000 people registered by Oct 22 (two weeks from now, one week prior to the event) we pull the plug, and we can all go apply our energies elsewhere that day. But I see that the good folks at The Other 98%, who have created the Humanbannersf.com website, have included all sorts of social media ways to share this event. So please, share away. And know that more (and more-detailed) info will soon follow. Hope to see you soon.


PORTLAND

A good friend of mine, Paul Vandevelder, went from his home in Corvallis, Oregon, up to Portland for an Occupy rally yesterday, Thursday. The folks on the ground were expecting a few hundred people, hoping to match the 1,000 people who turned out for Occupy Seattle and the 800 we march with us at Occupy San Francisco the day before, Wednesday. The Portland newspapers, who always estimate low, estimated that at least ten friginn’ thousand people showed up! I got goosebumps talking to Paul. Paul is my age, 60, and he had a chance to address the whole crowd on the kickass sound system that was wheeled into Pioneer Square in the heart of Portland by one of the “kids” who’ve joined this movement. Paul said, “I bring you greetings from another generation! Many of us in that generation have never given up the dream of building a more just and honorable society. Welcome to the revolution!” This Occupy movement has spread to approx 150 cities across the US. The police are making arrests (in NY, in Sacremento, in SF). I think this thing is ON. Even Moveon.org, which was so silent during the Impeach-Bush-and-Cheney movement, is onboard: http://civic.moveon.org/occupy/?id=31810-1526115-EwQxT8x&t=2


WASHINGTON DC

A picture was posted to Facebook of several hundred people doing a 99% human banner in DC yesterday. It’s impressive. It’s given me ideas. I’m going to try to swing out into the tech-world and try to attach a photo to this email, but if that doesn’t work, you can (maybe) see it here: http://www.facebook.com/Erika.Morningstar/posts/255514841151194?cmntid=255523254483686


SAN FRANCISCO

The police have forced the dismantling of the tents in front of the Federal Reserve Building. The numbers have dwindled, but I’ve been there several times over the past couple of days, and I’ve fallen in love with the kids. My Tunisian friend told me this morning that they were all shocked by the police brutality they saw the other night. “You hear about this, but when you see it with your eyes, like I did, it’s different.” One of the group was being arrested (he was charged with disturbing the police and resisting arrest and is still being held), and, says my new friend, “He was handcuffed, he was down on the ground, he was defenseless, he was helpless, and one of the police put his knee into the back of his neck and drove his face into the ground. His face. Your should see it. Even the other police were shocked by this one (police) guy. He didn’t need to do that. We’ve learned his name. He’s got a family. We don’t want to hurt him. But, that hurt us all.” I’ve been getting familiar with the group -- they’re mostly young (I met a 19 year old girl from Altoona, Pennsylvania, this morning) -- and I tell them if they can just hold the space, I like to think that my generation will start supporting them in numbers. One of the fellows who has been there a week, and who, I think, composes the text that appears on the OccupySF.com site, looked me in the eye a few minutes ago and said, “Oh, we’re going to hold the space.” He’s been camped there a week now. “This is it,” he says. “Not going anywhere.” OccupySF.com

To be continued, I’m sure.

Please share the October 29 signup link. http://www.humanbannersf.com/

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