I’ve posted on Occupy Buffalo a couple times in the past week (click here and here) but after yesterday and last night I felt the need to mention this again. It’s not that anything significant has happened in the last day or so, it’s just that I am so surprised (and impressed) that people are still at it after the crazy weather we’ve had in the last 48 hours. The winds seemed to have calmed a bit now, but up until the past few hours we have been in the midst of a 2 day windstorm (wind gusts up to 55mph/88kph and sustained winds of 25mph/40kph). And in addition, yesterday it poured and poured and poured. Last night’s low temperature was about 45F/7C) and these people are sleeping in tents. I thought of them as I crawled into my warm and dry bed last night. To be honest, I didn’t expect anyone to stay there…but they did.
I spoke to a few people today, one of them–Michael Mottern–is pictured above. He’s been there for 5 days, he told me. He also mentioned, almost immediately, that he was a Socialist, and that he’s been blogging about Occupy Buffalo for Social Democrats USA. Another thing he told me–and he specifically asked me to mention this–was something that happened last night. It was night time (he didn’t mention how late) when a truck pulled up and the driver got out dressed in a New York State Sheriff uniform. They initially thought there was a problem, but they were wrong…he just stopped by to drop off bottled water and food. He told them that he believed in what they were doing…and so do I.
Before I parted I asked Michael what it was like to sleep in a tent in Niagara Square last night. He paused a minute, then smiled and said plainly…cold and wet. Rock on Occupyers…thanks for having the courage and willpower to do this.
To see a map of the cities in North America that are currently involved in this movement, click here.
Urban Simplicty 