The disheartened  and disgruntled masses that make up a large part of  the Occupy Wall Street movement are also attracting disheveled and dishonest in their midst, creating a cast of characters with plenty to say to whoever will listen. Despite the antics on the fringe, most are sticking to the message of the movement:  “Jobs, jobs, jobs.” That was the overwhelming response to the question, “Why are you here?”
There were plenty of onlookers snapping photos when HV Biz visited the Occupy Wall Street “headquarters” in lower Manhattan, just a few blocks from the site where the  rebuilding of the World Trade Center is going on. Nearly 1,000 people are crammed into the pocket park the  movement is calling home.
Privately owned by Brookfield Office Properties, Zuccotti Park was designed as a place to provide quiet respite for Wall Street”™s workers. Now, it”™s a tent city of plastic tarps, with generators keeping cell phones, laptops and lights glowing well into the night ”“ sprouting  a food pantry and free clothing to keep protestors fed and dressed in the process of the two-month sit-in. So far, owners say protesters can stay as long as they keep the park  clean.
Lea Gasperino, a New York City teacher who lives in Valhalla, traveled down to Zuccotti Park with her friend, Denise Mikoleski, a nurse from Kingston, on Saturday, October 18. Both are working, but discouraged about the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots as America”™s recession deepens.
“I came because I”™m worried,” Gasperino said. “My husband”™s job was outsourced and it took him two years to find another job ”“ and it”™s only part-time. We  have a child, and we are trying to live on my salary … we”™ve already moved to a cheaper place and cut back everywhere we can to make ends meet. It”™s just harder and harder. Where will it end?”
“I”™m upset about the fact that our government is bought and paid for by lobbyists,” Mikoleski said. “Do these elected officials really care about health, the environment or doing something to put America back to work? Only if it works for the corporations. They”™ve outsourced jobs that kept people working and able to pay their bills. And nothing has been done to stop it.”
Among the crowd of unemployed, underemployed, college graduates unable to take their skills to market and workers worrying if their job will be the next to go were anarchists, panhandlers and homeless people, with a liberal dose of jugglers and clowns performing for the crowd of onlookers.
Whatever the reason Occupy Wall Street has attracted such a diverse group ”“ whether in Zuccotti Park or in Baltimore ”“ most share a common desire: A bigger slice of the American pie.
“We are just plain tired of being told to be grateful for the crumbs,” said one protester who preferred to remain nameless. “I might not have a job if I give it to you.”
American writer John Steinbeck caught the mood of the people displaced during the Great Depression in his Pulitzer-prize winning novel, “The Grapes of Wrath.”
“On the highways, the people moved like ants and searched for work, for food. And the anger began to ferment.”
As America”™s disenchantment grows, so has the number of people who have taken their angst to the streets. Of one thing we can be certain: change inevitably happens ”“ only no one knows what kind it will be.
