The Occupy Portraits: A Photo Essay

newark, new jersey 27 January Occupy Newark, New Jersey is only a 30-minute train from New York City’s Occupy Wall Street. Town to town, each gathering has their own unique feeling, and each city their own understanding of the movement. Here, Occupy Newark has officially been validated as hav- ing legal rights as citizens to gather in protest with their long list of grievances against gov- ernment policies with which they disagree. Yet another Occupy campsite decrying inequities caused by sanctioned run-away corporate greed coupled with the lack of true leadership by a vast majority of career politicians elected by a questionable system of gathering and counting the actual votes. Elected representatives who swore an oath to care for all the citizens of this nation, not just the ones able to purchase their own personal politicians, more concerned with re-election than with accomplishing the work they’ve been hired to do. Upon arrival a few activists proudly show me inside some of their tents, everything folded and put away, and ready for bunk inspection. Each Occupy member holds to a mandatory self-made rule that inside the tents are to be as tidy as the rest of the campsite. Also agreed to, any disorderly conduct or disrespectful attitudes result in the person being asked to leave the community immediately. Perhaps this camp’s seemingly extra efficient sense of organization has to do with the practical basics of survival when living outside through a brutal east coast winter. Wind, cold, rain, snow, mud, and yet still as clean and orderly as the other campsites. Unique to this gathering of protesting citizens however is that each of these tents has been provided access to electricity for heaters and lights by the city. In addition to their own regular meetings, the Newark group is close-by enough to frequently attend and support and when necessary of course challenge the ideas and actions at Occupy Wall Street, as I witnessed the night before at the General Assembly meeting in New York City. One huge extended family that reaches across the globe. Inspiring to experience that as a consciously aware planetary citizen I’ve a place to stay no matter where my travels might take me.