OccupyWallStreet: I see old people

The media keeps telling us that this is a student movement and there are nothing but young people at OccupyWallStreet.  This is a lie.

There are people of all ages there and a LOT more people who are middle aged than you would expect.  It is a gross mischaracterization to say that this a youth movement.  That’s because so many of us are unemployed that we have time to go to marches and rallies.  If the people who are running this country don’t want more marches, they really need to make a more concerted effort to get people back to work.  On the other hand, occupation sites might be a good place to network.  It gets people out of the house and out of their heads.  Plus, if there’s decent bandwidth, you can check your email for job posting updates and rejection notices.   

The unions added more middle aged people to the marchers once we got to Foley Square but if you look at the video I took at Zuccotti Park before we marched to Foley Square, you will see that roughly half of the people in that crowd are older adults (by that, I mean older than 30).  That is representative of the people who were there yesterday.

Note to Tea Party people: I recommend that you go to an occupation near you.  Just remember to keep politics out of your interactions with other protestors.  No one is there to argue for specific candidates (especially Ron Paul) or platforms or anything like that. (Seriously, you want to keep your politics at home at an occupation)  I did see a couple Obama people yesterday but, to be honest, they weren’t proselytizing and that’s not welcome anyway.  There were also no signs of religious affiliations.  All you will find there are people who are as angry as you are about the economy, debt and spending on the wars.  One of the most popular chants yesterday was:

How do you reduce the deficits?

End the wars, tax the rich!

If you can find common ground in those sentiments, get thee to an occupation and stand with your fellow Americans.  The last thing the parties want is for us to find common ground.  If you are itching to make a difference and put the fear of god in your elected representatives of either party, join an occupation.

OccupyNewJersey will have two sites: Trenton and Jersey City.  The Jersey City occupation will take place close to the Goldman Sachs tower, which architecturally bears a passing resemblance to Barad-Dur.  If you are in New Jersey, please check the Occupy New Jersey website for further details.  Considering how many R&D professionals are laid off in New Jersey, it would be kind of cool if we could get some turn out in our labcoat and safety glasses.  The country has the wrong idea about this recession.  It has no idea how severely our science professionals have been affected.  Time to let them know.

I expect that Chris Christie will pop a carotid when he sees us in Trenton.  Plan on nasty, mean spirited and soul crushing attacks from Christie’s crew, because they have no respect for average people who aren’t living off their investments or developers building stupid behemoth shopping centers in the Meadowlands.   He should remember that the longer this Lesser Depression goes on, the smaller the state treasury will get.  His Labor department has been working their butts off to find us jobs but until he and the legislature do something to plug the holes siphoning of the good paying biotech jobs to Massachusetts and California, the deterioration of the educated workforce in NJ will continue and may accelerate.

So, stop stuffing your pie hole, Christie and do something useful for a change.

And then there were the little people: