"Well, we don't want to narrow it down to a few demands, because each community has issues that it wants to address. This protest is spreading, and a list of demands from here can't address all the problems."
"But what about educating the public? If you can highlight a few key issues, then the public will have a clearer idea of what is wrong?"
"I hear you, but there are already people doing that. Writers. They may not be in our group but they are sympathetic to us. The explanations are out there. There are already people explaining what is wrong."
"We don't want to designate a spokesman or a leader, because we don't want all the pressure to be on him. We don't want him to be harassed by the FBI, for the FBI to tap his phone. Look at all the protest leaders from the past. Look at how they killed Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. If they want to tap the phone, they'll have to tap all of our phones."
"Yeah, but some people are better at speaking than others, so these will emerge naturally, right?"
"You're right, and they already have, but we can all talk. We all know what to say. We've taught each other what to say."
He believed the country was solidly behind this protest, and support will only grow, "People love us, man. They send us all kinds of stuff. They send us money. People love us."
Speaking of solidarity, I wouldn't have been able to observe the protest if a dozen readers of my photo blog hadn't sent me hundreds of dollars this past month alone. Part of this cash was used to fix my broken camera. With a poisoned media, untrained citizens must anoint themselves journalists.
Though protesters have released no official demands, many of the signs at Liberty Park are clear enough, "END THE WARS," "END THE FED" and "TAX THE RICH." These demands are also shouted out by protesters on their marches.
And the marches are getting larger and more representative. Everyone is here, basically, from tiny children to senior citizens, egg heads to hard hats, pacifists to war veterans. Black, white, yellow or brown, they are all here shouting in unison, "Wall street got bailed out. We got sold out," "Tax the rich! End the wars!" and, "This is what real democracy looks like!"
About the only types who aren't marching are Wall Street suits and, well, cops. It is sad to see so many policemen protecting the very people who have also ripped them off. At a Starbucks near the New York Stock Exchange, some cops have even become bouncers.
Running around trying to find a place to charge my camera batteries, I saw a Starbucks, but its entrance was blocked by a police-manned barricade spanning the street. I approached, "Can I go in?"
"I need to see an ID," a cop said.
In the new America, one needs to show an ID just to enter a Starbucks? I pulled out my long expired Virginia driver's license.
"So you're not from New York?" The cop interrogated.
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