#occupyphilly

Occupy Wall Street hasn't fizzled out. Not only does it continue to grow, it is spreading across the country. The media is starting to take notice, and so are the politicians: Mitt Romney has already begun deploying the "class warfare" epithet, while Herman Cain is saying that the unemployed and homeless have only themselves to blame.
Though my recent move to Pennsylvania has prevented me from watching or participating in events at Wall Street, it did give me an opportunity to attend the organizational meeting (pictured above) for the Occupy Philly event, which begins tomorrow (9:30 a.m., City Hall).
Since these demonstrations are receiving an increasing amount of publicity, it would be superfluous to repeat the content of the meeting or reiterate the essential concepts fueling the demonstrations. Instead, I've got two smaller morsels for you: the first are the latest additions to my growing collection of protest literature:

(click to enlarge)

The other thing I'd like to share is a small worry of mine.
As you can tell, I fervently approve of these demonstrations, despite the movement's (current) lack of a focused message and a set of practical demands. Critics contend that the bulk of the participants are aimless, ignorant kids who don't really know what they're doing. Where the organizers are concerned, this is definitely not the case.
But at last night's meeting, when I took a seat up on the rafters (the United Methodist Church probably hasn't hosted such a large crowd any time in the last hundred years), someone took a seat on the stair behind me a few minutes later. I turned around to find a girl who couldn't have been any older than twenty-two, leaning against the rail and sipping from a McCafe cup -- which seemed somewhat out of place at an anti-corporate gathering formed as a sister movement to a demonstration originally conceived by AdBusters.
When everyone broke into small groups to discuss and debate possible demonstration sites before putting it to a vote, the girl kept insisting that it had to be City Hall, because corruption. It couldn't be at Love Park because Love Park would be lame. It could only be City Hall because, you know, all the corruption and stuff.
After City Hall was chosen as the demonstration site, the girl left. When the meeting concluded and I stood up to get in line for the exit, I almost stepped on the empty coffee cup she left behind for somebody else to deal with.
I truly hope she represents the only smallest possible segment of the Occupy [blank] demonstrators. Having too many such people on board will only lead to problems: they're the least likely to take this seriously, and the most likely to validate detractors' claims whenever a microphone is placed near their mouths.

Housekeeping note: been pretty busy with the move and getting adjusted to the new gig. I'll respond to comments, emails, and Formspring questions over the weekend, I promise.