Portland, Oregon (February 2012)
Emmy and I are traveling to Portland next weekend. I go to Occupy Portland’s website to see what is planned. I learn several new usages from an OP press statement:
Occupies Portland, Longview, and Oakland, who have coordinated an inter-occupy caravan of protesters from along the West Coast, say they are not swayed by the new development: “What we want is the best possible conditions for rank-and-file. Anything less, and Occupy will mobilize as planned…”
I wouldn’t have thought to refer to two different Occupations collectively as “Occupies,” but when I see it print it seems appropriate. However, I am pretty sure that an “inter-occupy caravan” can’t be traveling anywhere but in circles.
* * *
Occupy Portland maintains a chockfull Google calendar that advises about “Actions/Events”, “Committees” and “Workshops”. The document is well organized and it is easy to survey what activities are scheduled during the weekend that we will be in town. An introductory section explains that it is the hope of “occupyportlandcalendar” that the site is inclusive of all activities and meetings so that “occupiers, full and part time, and the rest of the 99% can be involved”.
The calendar bears a “Disclaimer”:
NOT ALL ITEMS ON THIS CALENDAR HAVE GONE THROUGH THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY APPROVAL PROCESS.
SOME ITEMS MAY NOT BE ENDORSED BY OCCUPY PORTLAND.
It is an interesting caveat to be found on the same webpage that says elsewhere that “nothing is official in this world occupation”.
I survey the calendar and realize with some disappointment that Emmy and I will miss a rally outside of City Hall to demonstrate in support of a proposed city resolution to support a federal constitutional amendment to “End Corporate Personhood”. A dropdown menu that I access from the calendar explains that the goal is to make clear, from a legal perspective, that “corporations are not people and money is not speech.”
Emmy and I discuss the point. She is 11 and doesn’t see why a constitutional amendment is needed. She says, “don’t people just know that?”
– Jay Duret
jayduret@yahoo.com