(This post's "possibly irrelevant image" is from a heartbreaking group of photos by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, The Ruins of Detroit.)
(1) #OccupyThanksgiving! I've seen the suggestion go around: many of us are having Thanksgiving with family and/or friends who may not know enough about or be involved enough in the Occupy movement. It might help accelerate the movement if everyone pledged to talk to their family and friends about it and why you're involved, dispel misinformation, etc.
Here's an anecdote that makes me think this could be very important. I got a lengthy voicemail from D&S pal Larry Peterson, who contributed many useful posts to this blog in the early days of the financial crisis. He was calling from his hometown of Brockton, a working-class suburb of Boston, where he's been spending time with his recently widowed mother. He was calling to say that at that moment he and his mom were at an anti-foreclosure rally, in Brockton, with roughly 4o other people, most of whom looked like it was the first political rally they'd ever been to. He and his mom (whom he has always described to me as apolitical) were chanting, he said. People driving by were honking their horns in support. People were holding homemade signs, including one guy whose sign said "Occupy!," who (again) looked like he wouldn't have anything to do with the movement. "This is something the likes of which I never thought I'd see!" said Larry. Larry later told me that when he went to church (his mom always drags him), and people in the congregation found out he's been involved in #OccupyBoston, they were badgering him, not because they were suspicious of the movement or its participants or goals, but because they wondered why they hadn't sent anyone down to Brockton to organize them!
So I think one next step for the movement is for people who've been involved so far to reach out to others, even to people we never would have thought might get involved. What better time than Thanksgiving?
(2) Stealing Thanksgiving: Great piece by our friend Judy Ancel on the CNN website about "Black Friday" creeping into Turkey Day: Shop on Thanksgiving? No Thanks.
(3) Account of the Raid on Zuccotti: A compelling account of the the shutting down of the #OWS encampment at Zuccotti park, by a member of the #OWS tech group: The Arrogance of Power. I like his point about how he was essentially robbed by armed thugs.
(4) Retired Police Captain Arrested: A great video (just so it doesn't seem like we're piling onto the police) of a retired Philly police captain who was arrested on Nov. 17th:
More evidence that more people can be reached than we might have thought.
Happy Thanksgiving!
--Chris Sturr