‘Occupy’ walkout organized for ISU
Among the signs held by protestors at the Occupy Iowa rally at the Iowa State Capitol on Sunday, Oct. 9, were those embellished with the Twitter “hashtag” for the event: #OccupyIowa. Social media has been instrumental in organizing rallies across the country with organizers utilizing sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
October 12, 2011
Students are planning to Occupy Iowa
State for noon on Thursday, Oct. 13.
Two graduate students at Iowa State,
Carol Oliveira and Angie Carter, who are part of the “99 percent”
and plan to attend Thursday’s event, believe Occupy Wall Street
will be historical.
The two said it’s a chance for
people to get involved in participatory democracy in a time where
many of them are fed up with the election cycle.
“I feel really lucky to be in school
right now,” Carter said.
Carter said that students need to do
something at the state level, “especially because this is what
we’re going to be dealing with for the rest of our
lives.”
Carter said she hopes the whole
community joins in. She said she got her undergraduate degree at
the University of Iowa, and there wasn’t as big of a divide between
the city and the university.
“Wouldn’t it be cool if we had an
occupy Ames that started at the Ames City Hall?” Carter asked.
[Corrected from the courthouse]
Both agreed that a lot of people
involved with Occupy Wall Street have been criticized for a lack of
control and a lack of demands, but the public needs to see the
magnitude behind the movement first, then a list of demands will
follow.
They said it is a beginning of a
process. People are usually given things in a top down way, but
this will hopefully get people energized and motivated.
“We want to write down everything.
We don’t want to just write down what signs say but what the signs
mean,” Oliveira said.
They said if the demands need to
come locally, then democracy will come.
“The disenfranchisement people are
feeling are from the national structures,” Carter said.
Oliveira mentioned the bank bailouts
as well.
“No one has been held guilty yet,”
Oliveira said. “People are being left behind from decision
making.”
Both Oliveira and Carter spoke about
more of the criticisms the Occupy movements have been facing. They
said part of the criticism from this is that it’s a bunch of lazy
students, hippies and even a group of students who are looking for
dates.
Carter said that isn’t
true.
“So many students who are looking
for jobs did it right. They went to school and did the
internships,” Carter said.
They said they want to be involved
in the movement because they feel it is a responsibility to
represent the 99 percent.
“It’s the future of our country.
Even if you’re part of the lucky one percent, you have to be …
looking at the future for your kids.”
Warren Blumenfeld, associate
professor in curriculum and instruction, said he plans on attending
Thursday’s event.
“I think it needs to be a top down
and bottom up movement on all levels,” Blumenfeld said.
He said that people need to be able
to talk about inequities at the local level.
Blumenfeld said young people
organized the first social movements.
“Young people want to have more
voice in their own future. They’re the ones challenging to make
government give freedom and liberty,” Blumenfeld said.
According to the Occupy ISU Facebook
page, “We are exiting our classes and work on the ISU campus at 12
p.m. and moving toward Lincoln Way. The more people that gather at
once, the better! We will know who you are if you have a sign, so
please hang it up high and proud. We will start marching towards
Lincoln Way. We will not be assembling on ISU grounds, rather
moving from campus to the community.”
More Occupy ISU events may be
decided during Thursday’s march.