'Occupy’ organizers want family event : News-Record.com : Greensboro & the Triad's most trusted source for local news and analysis

GREENSBORO — When the Occupy movement that began on New York’s Wall Street comes to downtown Greensboro today, it will come with a head of steam that’s been building for weeks.

Organizers and supporters of Occupy Greensboro say the protests of economic inequity happening across the country inspired them to put together a local event.

Organizers say it also inspired them to do it the right way.

Interested local residents have been holding “general assembly” meetings to decide on the event’s direction by consensus.

“We’ve been adamant about creating a safe space for a nonviolent, family-friendly event, somewhere people can bring their children,” said John Wright, one of the group’s organizers. “And the city, to their credit, has been very helpful with that.”

The group estimates the crowd will reach between 500 and 1,000 people when they gather at 3 p.m. at the Phill G. McDonald Plaza in downtown Greensboro. Participants will march past the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, Bank of America and other financial institutions, and end up at Festival Park, 200 N. Davie St.

The group rented space at the park and the neighboring YWCA parking lot to avoid the standoff with police that happened at Occupy events in Boston and New York.

“The city greatly reduced its rental fee for us — from $700 a day to I believe around $200,” Wright said. “And we’ll have the YWCA parking lot for camping, which is private property.”

Initially, some in the group argued protesters should simply occupy the park without paying rent — under the theory there would be too many people for police to eject.

“In the end, we decided it was more important to have a good relationship with the city and the police,” Wright said.

Wright, a 29-year old who coaches lacrosse at Grimsley High and Wake Forest, said this is the first protest movement in which he's taken part.

A Quaker and a Peace Corps volunteer awaiting his first assignment abroad, Wright said he was inspired by President Obama’s talk of change ahead of the 2008 election.

Wright said those in the Occupy movement have a range of political opinions and motivations, but he got involved because he didn’t see that change happening.

“There is an increasing gap between the rich and the poor; the middle class is being destroyed,” he said.

“If something isn’t done, we’re going to enter a Gilded Age again, another 1880s. I don’t want to live in a world that’s dominated by robber barons.”

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com

northoftheboro

October 15, 2011 - 8:09 am EDT

As the pro-Occupy media and other progressive backers of the union-organized, agenda-driven movement try so desperately, yet erroneously, to compare these demonstrations to the Tea Party movement of the last three years, the Occupiers will serve themselves well by following the peaceful protests of their conservative, pro-capitalist, pro-American counterparts from 2009-2011. With the hundreds of arrests and acts of anarchy by "Occupy" mobs in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, DC, and Denver in the previous weeks, such civility and calm may be totally out-of-character for those who wish to advance their leftist cause by forceful means. Anyway, let's follow the example of Dr. King and Gandhi (not Lenin, Castro, and Mao) when exercising your First Amendment rights and TRY to keep it lawful...the whole world is watching.

nc84

October 15, 2011 - 9:53 am EDT

these events are not union organized...they are union supported but not organized that's a big difference. The tea party movement was an agenda driven movement. Less government, less taxes, less spending is an agenda in my book; a Republican agenda. By and large however, sparing a few bad apples, the protests have been peaceful, and if you feel that being arrested for not staying on sidewalks is a form of violence then fine whatever I hope you never jaywalk. Lastly, was it really necessary to point out the "conservative, pro-capitalist, pro-American" propaganda bit. There are varying ways to be pro-capitalist or pro-American and in my opinion these people are meeting these requirements that you have labeled you're so called "civil" conservatives

retiree

October 15, 2011 - 3:57 pm EDT

Let's see . . . ."Less government, less taxes, less spending is an agenda in my book; a Republican agenda."

So, the counter to this is more government, more taxes, and (of course) more spending. . . .which of course is precisely the Democrat "agenda."

October 15, 2011 - 4:45 pm EDT

by my logic yes you could say that...which is fine by me

October 15, 2011 - 5:37 pm EDT

I thought so. And. . . who would pay for the facility and the upkeep, the maintenance, the lighting, facility employees, water/sewer, etc? Just those who make more than $1,000,000 a year?

October 15, 2011 - 6:42 pm EDT

i believe that all members of society should contribute based on ability and in return receive back from their society according to the their need. I don't believe that is the case now. I believe the lower and middle classes are working extremely hard in this country to do the right thing and the upper class is not contributing as they should.

rmacz

October 15, 2011 - 10:32 pm EDT

So this is the new definition of equal rights...ha!

newkid

October 15, 2011 - 5:03 pm EDT

Actually, having just attended this event—along with 600-700 others—there ARE some similarities between Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party rallies. Both groups have some common economic interests...although they may not see it that way. And if both can focus—filtering out "off-message" issues—they may have a continued impact.

Attendees today were from all over the social-economic map.

Bo Regard

October 15, 2011 - 9:39 am EDT

I remember some pretty intimidating behavior by some Tea Partiers being shown on the news, including a beating. That doesn't mean all Tea Partiers are thugs.

Occupy constantly states it is non-violent, and the fact that a few might struggle against arrest doesn't mean all Occupiers are thugs. Police in riot gear is provocative in itself, and totally unnecessary in my opinion.

Refusing to leave public places is an effort to roll back excessive post-9/11 restrictions on the Constitutional right to assemble, something I deeply appreciate. Occupy Greensboro has rented both its private-property camping space, and its public-property protesting space. How is that anti-capitalist?

The fact is, Wall Street hid enormously risky, systemically threatening securities trading off-balance sheet. They caused a deep, worldwide, continuing recession. We bailed them out of the negative consequences they deserved, and they took advantage instead of apologizing and acting appreciative. Talk about an entitled mentality!

$9 trillion in US wealth has disappeared by their actions. Shaky banks hold $16 trillion in interest-earning reserves they borrow nearly interest-free from the Fed. Yet business loan interest rates are too high for wide-spread capital lending to happen. The great majority of Americans realize that laws have to change the incentives so the economy can grow. Yet Wall Street uses our money to fight tooth-and-nail against every needed reform.

I, for one, will be enjoying the beautiful weather and exercising my freedom of thought and expression downtown this afternoon in support of equal opportunity, fair taxation and government reform. Why not join me?

ChinaCatSunflower

October 15, 2011 - 11:58 am EDT

I'll see you there!

ravencottage

October 15, 2011 - 3:49 pm EDT

"...including a beating." The only beating of which I'm aware was a black Tea Party member being beaten by union thugs.

October 16, 2011 - 4:09 am EDT

Oct. 25, 2010 at a Rand Paul event. Point is, nobody needs to be hitting anybody else over politics, and the fact that this happened, or union guys attacked the black guy doesn't make either political group a bunch of thugs.

Aeolius

October 15, 2011 - 12:18 pm EDT

" “The city greatly reduced its rental fee for us — from $700 a day to I believe around $200,” Wright said. "

I hope the city extends the same discount to the Tea Party, the next time they hold an event.

ladyjane6191

October 16, 2011 - 10:52 am EDT

Aeholius- you whine too much. In fact, much of the TP movement has been one great big whine. When most of America is in the middle, radical politics actually serves only to shred our way of life and does even more to harm our country than Wall Street has done.

katei

October 15, 2011 - 1:27 pm EDT

Oh, Greensboro--how spineless. When this whole thing began I was stoked--I'm angered and engaged--and couldn't wait to show my support for my country and my town through exercising my right to assemble. I can't express my disappointment of how quickly OccupyGreensboro turned into little more than a slightly annoyed liberal parade.

Although I'll be there--I won't be occupying, I'll be renting. Thanks to whoever paid the bill to the city--but I was pretty sure that my ability to occupy public spaces was defined by the constitution and paid for through my taxes--and to "rent" space undermines this entire activity.

October 15, 2011 - 2:06 pm EDT

well said

October 15, 2011 - 4:01 pm EDT

So, I guess you shouldn't be required to rent anything if it is owned by you . . .the public? That's great! Call Mack Brown and see when you can use the Coliseum. He's got bathrooms, a sound stage and microphones, parking, amphitheater, etc.

October 15, 2011 - 4:47 pm EDT

you're absolutely right...my taxes already pay that rental fee

October 15, 2011 - 5:40 pm EDT

No, your taxes pay toward the upkeep and staffing of the facility, but if it is never rented for events (rock concerts, etc), then your taxes (if you pay property taxes) are going to be sky high. Have you taken a course in economics and the law of supply and demand?

October 15, 2011 - 6:38 pm EDT

yes i have actually taken courses in economics however this isn't about supply and demand. publicly owned capital/resources is and should be open for the public to use freely or available at reduced rates...what difference is there from a public park, a library, a public road, et cetera that i frequent for free which is maintained, policed, and constructed from public coffers and taxes?

October 16, 2011 - 4:06 am EDT

Oct. 25, 2010 at a Rand Paul event Video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuM5571nf1I

Doesn't matter what their politics are, nobody needs to be hitting anybody over them.

October 16, 2011 - 11:04 am EDT

Perhaps the Fed should restrict its low/no cost loans to banks to only those who agree to and can demonstrate that they meet a maximum interest rate that clearly benefits business and private borrowers alike. My fear is that there can be no options where a work-around cannot be created.

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