REPORT FROM OCCUPY IN WASHINGTON DC, USA

By Bob Ballard

I feel the same way Allan. I have been occupying in Washington, DC and NYC since Oct. 6. I wrote this the other day.

"A hard rain is falling tonight. My fingers are still stiff and cold. My brothers and sisters on Freedom Plaza are stiff and cold too. Why?

I am living an on-going miracle here! Really! And not only am I living it, others are living it with me. We are living it together and creating it together right on Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. A few blocks away, others are creating miracles at McPherson Square and around the country and the world, the same thing is happening. What is happening? Something amazing, something incredible, something that I deeply understand, but have trouble explaining. Something that resonates with me yet eludes my attempts to capture it on the page. So let me try again.
 

At the occupation, every person I talk with gets it. Everyone understands and everyone understands they understand. I guess you could call it connection. And we connect within this living, breathing community stranded together on a stone island in a vast sea of turmoil and consternation that surrounds us. We sit out here, living and breathing, talking and walking, loving and caring, like a big sore thumb throbbing on the hand of power. We share our humanity, we share our thoughts and we share a burning desire for social and economic justice that transcends race, religion, gender and even time – I am meeting my brethren, the people I would have met had all this happened in my youth. For me, the circle of my life is complete. The missing connections, the emptiness of forgotten dates and times has been filled and ignited, like a gasoline bomb smoldering in the back of my brain somewhere.
 

The pieces of my heart that were scattered and confused have reunited. Despite the pain, the rain and the distance of my separation, my soul has restored itself to its rightful, vacant place within me. I know it has because I have watched it struggle, I have seen it flicker in the night. But now, in this glorious moment, my soul is radiant and proud, lighting my way and a path for others to follow. I am truly blessed.
 

Yes, a cold rain is falling and the temperatures are dropping, some snow is waiting in the wings. Yet my brothers and sisters choose to lie beneath it, shivering in their sleep, grasping for some heat. While I can only share a story and ruminate on their gifts to us all, they see the end of an era, and they hear not a different drum, but no drum, no sound except the gentle song of love. My brothers and sisters are cold, they are hungry, they are tired and sore, but they are not weak. They are not afraid of the darkness that lies ahead. For that darkness holds the seeds of light, a light that will soon pierce the blackness that surrounds us. They are creating the dawn. As they dream so shall it be."

~Bob Ballard
 

Posted at FACEBOOK by: Allan Eaton

https://www.facebook.com/sk8rpunks13

and, Christopher-Marc Parenti
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1386158672