Occupy Baltimore

I have found the revolution. It's in Baltimore, where one third of the population of the city lives in official poverty, and where over 60% of the population is Black. Occupy Baltimore was not planned months ago. It was not announced on the internet. There are no Porta-Potties. There is no big institutional-style kitchen, no doughnuts or ding-dongs. There are no media passes, no sound system, no stage. People did not register for it. They just showed up. Many of them were homeless anyway, so camping out is what they were already doing.

The people occupying the square in Baltimore include homeless people, people who are out of work, students, working people who are furious about the tax situation, retired people living on tiny incomes struggling to buy groceries. They include working people trying to change the system on their weekends, people of every conceivable color and background, people who feel themselves politically in solidarity with those who have been screwed by the system. Many of the people occupying Baltimore have no health care, they have lost or never owned a home, they have no "cushion" of comfort. Their children and grandchildren are attending sub-standard schools where they encounter bullying, drugs, and violence.

The people occupying cities all over the USA live in a country with a military budget of unimaginable trillions of dollars, and yet the Tea Party people insist there must be cuts to social programs, cuts in education spending, protection for the military and for "homeland security," and no increase of taxes for those who earn over (unimaginable) $250,000 a year. The people I met at Occupy Baltimore are steamed up about the situation, and yet they are kind. They are smiling. I didn't see anybody puffed up with self-importance, barking orders about where to put the banners and who should talk to the media.

I met a young woman named Jamie, on her day off from work, cooking whole wheat waffles for anyone who wants them, on a waffle iron with a long orange cord reaching into some bushes where there must be an electric outlet. I saw a bushel of organic macintosh apples. I saw a sign that says, "We are composting now," and I saw bags for recyclables and bags for trash. I didn't see many cameras, almost no iPhones, not a single laptop. I saw people talking to each other, smiling, asking, "How you doin'? You get some waffles? You hungry?"

For toilets, people are going into a nearby shopping mall with Abercrombie & Fitch and Gap stores, with souvenir shops selling shell-art and postcards.  In the square, I saw blankets and air mattresses on the ground.

I also saw a sense of joy. Someone named B.J. has run another long orange electric extension cord into another pile of bushes, and he has hooked up his own personal boombox, and he's playing a little rap music, a little reggae, a little hip hop Not too loud. It was early in the day when I was there. They tell me that at night, there is dancing at this revolution. There's a sign promoting anarchy. There's a First Aid station, and in front of that there's a sign taped up that says, "My Ph.D. does not equal a job."

This revolution is happening all over the country, including Portland, Oregon. I'm going to spend another day in Baltimore, and then I'm going to go up to New Haven with my friend Devorah. I've never been to New Haven, home of Yale University. I'll look around. At some point I'll go into NYC and see the Occupy Wall Street people. Next Friday I'll return to D.C. and spend some time with a few former students. And then I'll go back to Portland and see if I can be a support for the Occupy Portland people.

No more buying air tickets to attend a demonstration far away.  I've spent the money, and I'm here. It's gorgeous weather. Sunshine, light breeze, a few leaves turning. I'll turn this into a vacation--it's my one trip I can have this year, anyway. And I'll meet the revolution back home, where it ought to be anyway.

Next-day edit: Anyone reading this, please see the great comments and the links in some of them. We are doing this together.