Yvonne Gougelet

If you read my blog, you know I have been waiting for the American Revolution to begin for quite sometime now. Well, IT’S FINALLY BEGUN, MY FRIENDS! Occupy Wall Street - a protest fueled by peace activists, the poor, the youth, the angry, the over-educated, swimming-in-debt, unemployed, veteran activists, 87 year old raging grannies, parents with their children, ETC. People born in America and people born in countries all over the World. “The banks got bailed out, we got sold-out.” We want the Wars to end. We want the corruption in war torn countries to stop. We want the war dollars to go towards education, health care, bridges, roads, the elderly, and the poor. We want corporate money to stop influencing our congress. We need it to stop. We want to end Corporate Personhood (revoke the rights of corporations and hold certain corporations accountable for their crimes against humanity), the root of most of our World’s problems. We want community banks. We want the people to be bailed out, not the banks, over and over again.  On Friday, September 16th I particpated in a performance activism piece with the Arts and Culture committee of the Occupy Wall Street protest. I offered cake to the wealthy bankers and traders, the occassional rich tourists, and only gave tiny crumbs to everyone else. The purpose was to ignite a spark for everyone to let them know that the following night, Saturday, we were going to occupy the streets. REVOLUTION! We did. A few thousand strong, we rallied without a permit. The cops barricaded Wall Street, which is against our First Constitutional right. The protest ended up in a privatly owned park, Zuccotti Park. Symbolically located on Liberty and Broadway. We have now dubbed it Liberty Plaza. 200 hundred plus slept in the park the first night. It was the first night the temperature dropped. It was cold, I slept on a cold marble slab bench. I had a sheet and a blanket, tents aren’t allowed. I only got a few hours of sleep. Woke up the next morning, I saw cop vans pull up. About 6 vans pulled up. 8 or so cops in the back seat. I walked right up to the Deputy Sherriff, or whatever you call the main guy in charge and I told him we were going to have a beautifully peaceful day, that we were there for peace. As soon as I said that he ordered the vans to leave. It was wonderful. Later in the day the group of protesters voted on not having a liaison with the police, which I feel was the wrong decision, especially since I had had such good luck that morning. But, the whole group voted, that if the police wanted to speak to the mob, they speak to us all at once (which is difficult, considering we are a big group). Yesterday, several of the protesters were badly beaten, abused, slammed on the ground, denied inhalers, bloodied hands, etc. I’m hoping the group revotes to have a liaison. It just makes sense. Less violence from the cops, for sure.  I will be posting video interviews from protesters here. Stay tuned. Stay strong. Join us. Liberty and Broadway. #revolution

If you read my blog, you know I have been waiting for the American Revolution to begin for quite sometime now. Well, IT’S FINALLY BEGUN, MY FRIENDS! Occupy Wall Street - a protest fueled by peace activists, the poor, the youth, the angry, the over-educated, swimming-in-debt, unemployed, veteran activists, 87 year old raging grannies, parents with their children, ETC. People born in America and people born in countries all over the World. “The banks got bailed out, we got sold-out.”

We want the Wars to end. We want the corruption in war torn countries to stop. We want the war dollars to go towards education, health care, bridges, roads, the elderly, and the poor. We want corporate money to stop influencing our congress. We need it to stop. We want to end Corporate Personhood (revoke the rights of corporations and hold certain corporations accountable for their crimes against humanity), the root of most of our World’s problems. We want community banks. We want the people to be bailed out, not the banks, over and over again. 

On Friday, September 16th I particpated in a performance activism piece with the Arts and Culture committee of the Occupy Wall Street protest. I offered cake to the wealthy bankers and traders, the occassional rich tourists, and only gave tiny crumbs to everyone else. The purpose was to ignite a spark for everyone to let them know that the following night, Saturday, we were going to occupy the streets. REVOLUTION!

We did. A few thousand strong, we rallied without a permit. The cops barricaded Wall Street, which is against our First Constitutional right. The protest ended up in a privatly owned park, Zuccotti Park. Symbolically located on Liberty and Broadway. We have now dubbed it Liberty Plaza. 200 hundred plus slept in the park the first night. It was the first night the temperature dropped. It was cold, I slept on a cold marble slab bench. I had a sheet and a blanket, tents aren’t allowed. I only got a few hours of sleep.

Woke up the next morning, I saw cop vans pull up. About 6 vans pulled up. 8 or so cops in the back seat. I walked right up to the Deputy Sherriff, or whatever you call the main guy in charge and I told him we were going to have a beautifully peaceful day, that we were there for peace. As soon as I said that he ordered the vans to leave. It was wonderful.

Later in the day the group of protesters voted on not having a liaison with the police, which I feel was the wrong decision, especially since I had had such good luck that morning. But, the whole group voted, that if the police wanted to speak to the mob, they speak to us all at once (which is difficult, considering we are a big group). Yesterday, several of the protesters were badly beaten, abused, slammed on the ground, denied inhalers, bloodied hands, etc. I’m hoping the group revotes to have a liaison. It just makes sense. Less violence from the cops, for sure. 

I will be posting video interviews from protesters here. Stay tuned. Stay strong. Join us. Liberty and Broadway. #revolution

  1. ashortstorylong posted this