An Occupy Road Trip

In visiting 10 occupations in the Northeast and through the Great Lakes, I have met homeless veterans, Latina mothers, gay activists, African-American youth, retired professors, anarchists, nurses, unemployed union members, students, families, socialists, Native Americans, conservatives and full-time workers representing dozens of different occupations. We should thank the ruling elite: They have made class relevant again. What is so powerful about this moment is that so many different groups of people have banded together under the banner of the “99%.”

At Liberty Park, L.A. Kaufman, a long-time activist and parent of two children, says, “What this movement has done in a short period of time is astonishing. It’s sparked a national conversation about the concentration of wealth, and has the plutocrats quaking in their boots and Obama nervous. Who needs demands when you can do that?”