A couple of weeks ago I decided to get a room in downtown LA for a month. There were a number of factors involved in that decision. I had just returned from a couple weeks camping in the national parks in southern Utah, which had followed shortly on the heels of a five-day trip to Black Rock City to take part in the amazing spectacle that is the Burning Man festival held annually out in the middle of nowhere in northern Nevada. On top of two months traveling in Europe over the summer, I just wasn't too enthused about heading out somewhere else this fall. So despite my interest in going someplace more novel and exotic, like Cuba or Venezuela or Thailand, I also had a desire for some stability and familiarity.
I was also feeling a little pull to get some work done, which in this case means making progress on some projects and papers which are in early stages of development. For me, getting that kind of work done, especially if it means doing any writing, requires some focus and dedication that is hard to maintain if I am mobile and/or staying someplace that I want to spend time exploring. If I had gone to Cuba, I know I would have gotten little work done. Despite some people's perceptions, a sabbatical isn't supposed to be a long paid vacation. The whole idea is to be absolved of all other professorial obligations in order to focus on research and writing. My own moral commitments would have left me feeling a little guilty if I had spent the entire fall semester "playing" and not being productive at all.
Not that I can't handle a little guilt, especially when resulting from self-imposed judgments, so the above two reasons may not have kept me from leaving the country if not for the influence of a third factor. My decision to go camping in Utah coincided with my decision not to go to New York to join the Occupy Wall Street folks. But while I was camping, much to my delight if not surprise, the OWS movement caught fire and spread to lots of other cities around the country, including of course LA. So upon returning from my trip, I now faced the decision of whether or not I would go put up my tent at City Hall and join the Occupiers there.
On Oct. 15 there was a protest march, with a thousand or so folks heading downtown to walk through the financial district making noise before arriving at the OLA encampment in a show of solidarity. I joined the march and checked out the camp, and after reflecting on it for the rest of the day, decided that I just wasn't up for going down and "roughing it" for a few more weeks or more. As much as I felt drawn to be part of the movement, I have been sleeping on the ground so much over the last few months that I couldn't really talk myself into another extended stay in my tent in what weren't likely to be comfortable conditions.
The next day I decided to check craigslist to see if I could find a room to stay in for a few weeks if I were going to remain in LA. The third listing from the top was for a room in downtown LA for $975 a month, which upon investigating turned out to be just two blocks away from the OLA camp. A bus to USC runs right by the hotel, which allows me to park my car on campus and essentially forces me to get around downtown by walking or using public transportation. I've never spent much time here, and certainly not on foot, so while I have the benefits of being in a place I am basically familiar with, there is also sufficient novelty in my daily experience, and opportunities to see some new "sights," that it is also a lot like being a tourist.
I've learned from previous experience that it takes me a couple weeks in a new place to get comfortable, figure out where things are, learn how to best get around, etc., to reach a comfort zone where I am more inclined to be active and proactive. I've been here for two weeks now, and in addition to just adjusting to being here, I've been putting in a fair amount of time on a paper and other work-related tasks, so I hadn't connected at all with the OLA folks until yesterday. Since it was Halloween, I went out and bought a bunch of candy and walked around among all the tents at the camp handing the candy out to all the Occupiers hanging out at the time. From the reactions I got, I bet a lot of them hadn't had anything sweet to eat for awhile!
I finished up at the welcome tent that the Occupiers have set up to serve as a repository of lots of information regarding what's happening at OLA. There is a General Assembly meeting every night at 7:30 that anyone can attend, and a white board listed all the committees that have been formed and provided a schedule of when they were meeting that day. There are a number of committees I am interested in, so I plan to go back today to get contact info and start getting involved. They also had a prioritized list of items they would like to have donated, and the item at the top of the list was tents, implying that they have more people wanting to stay in the camp than they have tents for. Having walked through the whole camp, it certainly seems to be thriving. There's a food tent, a library, a kids' play area, a first aid station, and what the LA Weekly estimated to be about 400 tents packed in on the lawn on three sides of City Hall. LA has the benefit of nice weather and, so far, a benign city government, so the energy in the camp is peaceful and pleasant, and I have a feeling it would be a very positive experience to be camping there with all the other fired up 99 percenters!
Even if I'm not there physically, I am with them in spirit, and intend to find other ways that I can make a contribution to the movement. I will use this blog to describe some of what's going on here in LA and to comment on the OWS movement more generally. The drama yet to come should be compelling. The Occupiers are not going away, such that those in power have to choose between making some meaningful concessions or trying to repress the movement. So far, in many cities, they seem to be opting for the latter, apparently failing to recognize that their repression just fuels the fire, as has happened in reaction to the wounding of veteran Scott Olsen in Oakland last week:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/occupy-veterans-movement-growing/t/story?id=14848003
Any repression of domestic protestors also makes blatantly obvious the hypocrisy of our government officials:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S880UldxB1o&feature=youtube_gdata_player
The mayor of LA has already put out a warning that the Occupiers can't stay there indefinitely, so the stage is set for some kind of showdown at some point down the road. One way or another, sooner or later, here and around the country, this confrontation is going to escalate, as the forces for change continue to build in reaction to the forces that resist it. The possible scenarios for how this will all play out are myriad, so there is no way to anticipate how the story will unfold. But I'm glad I've decided to be here, to be a part of it, to do what I can to help change the course of history. I'll keep you posted as to how it's going!
Para la gente del mundo,
Pedro
11/11
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