Occupy Detroit!

Well, today was the big day. My sister, Ella, and I went down to Occupy Detroit for a few hours, and it was quite the experience. It was crazy, chaotic, disorganized, yet totally genuine, energetic, and welcoming (just to use some of my favorite adjectives). We got down there a little before noon, meet up with our friend louis, and walked around the encampment for a while. There were about 60 tents strewn around Grand Circus Park, all clustered around the central fountain. There was a library tent, a medical tent, a press tent, and even an outdoor kitchen to serve food. It was really incredible to see how sophisticated a "city" occupy Detroit had become. But it is the people that really make Occupy Detroit. They are an eclectic group: socialists, anarchist, libertarians, feminists, yet all were inviting.

First off, we started with the General Assembly (GA), with along 200 other people. This is the decision making body of the occupation, where each person is given equal voice. It is based around consensus; a simple majority is not enough to get anything passed, but rather any proposal can be rejected if a significant number of people are adamantly against it. Well, the GA centered around loosing their permit to live in Grand Circus Park. They were trying to decide whether to stay at the park and resist the police, or to leave the park and find another place to occupy.

Well, everyone in the crowd broke off into inclusive small groups to discuss the issue, and then each group sent up a representative to report back to the group. Then, anyone who wanted could bring up a proposal to be debated and voted on by the group. This was direct democracy at its finest. It got a little tedious at times, and occasionally chaotic, but everyone was represented, and it promoted a great sense community, even for people who just came to spend the day, like me.

I didn't really get a chance to volunteer much. The GA went on a lot longer than I thought (3 hours), and my sister and Ella were getting a little uncomfortable down there, so we left early. To be fair, there were several mentally ill and homeless people in the encampment, and there were acting overly "friendly" towards Ella and Hunter. One man kept trying to grab my coat and Ella's bag. So, we tried to stay in the middle of the group, and there were plenty of people walking around keeping an eye on everything.

Now, for the daffodil project stuff. Well, I didn't get to volunteer, but I still did my best to do good. The groups were all very touchy feely, and I hugged and made friends with several of the protesters. When we were sitting down, I gave up my seat and ended up standing in the back. Several mentally ill people were in the crowd, and I talked with a few and was friendly. Also, during the general assembly, a few women were trying to remove a man smoking a joint in the middle of the park, and he started accosting them. They yelled and called "safety", but most people didn't hear them. So, a few others and I yelled out for help, and half the GA ran over to help out. It got solved quite easily afterwards. Finally, I donated the money I had to help out the cause, and I am going to write an article about the movement for the school newspaper to help popularize the occupation. I guess some of this is just satisfying my political leanings, but I feel like I did at least a little good out there.