Opinion: Failure within Occupy Eugene

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Author: Reid Kimball
Editor: OE Communications
This opinion piece was approved by the OE Communications committee by receiving the minimum number of at least 6 votes needed for publication.

When I was a young boy skating during ice hockey practice I pushed myself beyond my limits to skate as fast as I could. I ended up falling down and crashing into the boards of the ice rink.

I wasn’t hurt in the slightest bit, but it was embarrassing. I knew my coach would be upset that I had failed to skate correctly. After I finished the drill behind the others, he skated over to everyone and looked at me straight in the eyes.

“Did you all see what Reid did back there?”

I knew it. I’m toast.

“He fell down, but he didn’t care. He got back up immediately and finished strong.”

I did?

“You can’t be afraid to fall. Every chance you have on the ice, you push yourself harder and if you fall, you get back up and try again.”

I was smiling.

He finished, “If you aren’t falling, you aren’t trying hard enough.”

This last statement has stuck with me ever since and I think it applies to Occupy Eugene in spades, because within OE we have a problem with accepting failure.

Many of us are young and inexperienced; I am one of them. I have made lots of mistakes, some small, some rather large. I see lots of my brothers and sisters also making mistakes. It’s not because we are unorganized, don’t care, or agent provocateurs. It’s because we are trying and working our asses off. When we do this, we push the boundaries of what we are capable of and undoubtedly, we sometimes fall.

If we aren’t falling, we aren’t trying hard enough.

Despite our efforts, instead of helping each other when some of us fall, I see many within OE verbally attack one another. These attacks do nothing but demoralize and humiliate hardworking, well-meaning individuals from working towards creating the world we all want to see.

Is this what we need? To make everyone fear the opportunity that exists within each failure?

Some see Occupy Eugene as failing. Ignoring the debate of what equals a failure; in my opinion any failure is OK and is necessary. Without failure, we remain stagnant, quickly becoming old, and ineffective.

Within my professional career of video game development we have the philosophy, “fail fast, learn faster”. This is because video games are very complex to create and it is not easy to plan ahead what the end game experience will look like.

Instead of spending two years and millions of dollars on one core idea, we crudely implement many ideas as fast as possible, fully expecting that most of those ideas will be utter failures. But each one will help us get closer to our end goal of creating the best game we can.

Those who embrace failure, welcoming it with excitement, tend to grow the fastest.

It is said that Thomas Edison was interviewed by a reporter who asked him if he felt like a failure for having created thousands of light bulb prototypes that did not work. Edison answered, “Young man, why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp.” And he was right, because after surpassing 10,000 attempts, Edison invented the light bulb and our world has never been the same since.

With each failure we grow stronger. We learn something new about ourselves, our community, the Eugene police, the city council, and more.

But we won’t be able to grow unless we can accept failure, and we won’t be able to do that if we continue to attack each other for our well intentioned efforts.

The story of our hopefully future triumph will include all the obstacles and adversity we faced along the way, each failure will enrich the tapestry of our collective experience. Let’s not knock people who have fallen down, but help them to their feet when in need. Their failure should be seen as a success to be celebrated.

If we all knock each other down, who will be left standing to help us up when we fall?

Opinion: Wake Up

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Author: Lotus Occupied
Editor: OE Communications
This opinion piece was approved by the OE Communications committee by receiving the minimum number of at least 6 votes needed for publication.

Hey you! Yes, you. I want you do do something for me: REVOLT!!

Wake up. Wake up and join the revolution!

Wake up and realize that unless you get mad at the system, you will never be able to break out of this docile little box you’ve been numbed into. Turn off your television–better yet, KILL YOUR T.V. It is the single most hypnotizing tool used by the 1% to keep you ignorant of the current state of our world and the more you allow its images to permeate your brain and consciousness, the further from revolution you will find yourself.

I laugh to myself now because I know that far from the revolution is right where you would like to be–pushing reform, much to the chagrin of the 99%. I get it that you disagree with situations, actions, and disobedience of those around you; I know that you disagree with the current trajectory and actions of Occupy Eugene; I get it that you would like to see an end to the tension between the governments you reside under and your fellow community members but I CANNOT and WILL NOT sit around and listen while members of the community I live in are torn down for their courage and asked to PLACATE the “powers that be” in the interest of “respect and trust”. No. My answer is no.

To those who prefer to “reform” the system instead of feed the “revolution” I offer this:

Tell me how many people were evicted from the camp that had no where else to go, how many lost their homes (tents), how many starved because they did not have regular access to food, how many froze into the cold evenings following Christmas because there was no more shelter for them, how many scurried back to their bushes and bridges alone, and dejected, and REjected, and then tell me that you don’t think we need revolution. Look into the eyes of children who spend their time playing video games instead of spending time with the family at dinner and SEE the dysfunction, look into the eyes of the elderly who are stuck eating cat and dog food because they are too poor to support themselves, look into the eyes of the addicts and alcoholics wandering rootlessly, look into the eyes of the upper-middle class glazed over with consumeristic stares while they buy more CRAP they don’t need, look at the way our men drool over our women, and the way little girls grow up thinking they’re fat while little boys beat them up on the playground, look into the eyes of the zombie in the mirror and ask yourself WHY?! WHY DOES IT ALL FEEL *SO* WRONG?!

I’ll tell you why:

Our food is poisoned and full of chemicals, our water supply is tainted and will soon be owned by huge corporations, some people don’t have enough energy to heat their homes, our marine life is dropping because huge corporations like BP pollute our oceans illegally which are now covered in slick oil, forests are being torn down for their timber and never replaced, wildlife is dwindling while cattle is bred for mass murder, human beings are getting sicker and sicker while pharmaceutical companies invent more and more “miracle pills” with side effects a mile long, health care is a joke and owned by BIG PHARMA who prospers on–you guessed it–illness.

Our corporate governments have been weaving this tight little nest of laws that actually work to suppress your constitutional rights, but before I get there, lets talk money. You wake up one day and find a job so you can go out and support yourself and have a family…you know, house, car, job, wife (husband), 2.5 kids, picket fence, the works. The American dream. So you get the house, wife, and subsequent *stuffs* and raise children who also want to grow up and live the American dream, and then one day you realize that you were born into this giant, disgusting, continually cycling machine that keeps people as slaves to capitalism by encouraging breeding (sexualizing EVERYTHING) and consumerism (selling EVERYTHING). You realize that when you walk into that job you perpetuate the cycle, you must check your morals at the door, forget you make $8 an hour and then help *huge* corporations swindle your fellow human beings out of their HARD EARNED money and hand it lovingly, and with a smile, over to the 1% and their corporations…and then teach your children a good work ethic. It’s revolting in that I-just-threw-up-in-my-mouth kind of way.

The money they get is used to buy influence on legislation–they buy votes, they buy congressmen, they buy anything and everything they can–“they” get bigger and bigger. You realize that your time is valuable–corporations want it. They want you to spend it making money to buy their things, they want you to spend it watching T.V., they want you to fetter it away on meaningless Big Macs and fries, while they addict you (and your children) to cheap food with chemical additives. Yellow #5 anyone? Laws are passed like the Patriot Act and National Defense Authorization Act allowing your fellow Americans to be indefinitely detained without trial or even charges simply because they are “suspected of terrorism”. Terrorism is anything said or done that can be perceived as “against the government”. PIPA and ACTA seek to censor your internet, penalizing you and protect corporations. You see your local Eugene councilman (I won’t mention names here, lol) call a group of silently protesting topless women “TERRORISTS”, and their acts “TERRORISM”, right before you see American cops BEATING peaceful people protesting those same corporations monopolizing your time and the confusion sets in. Protesting is terrorism? or is it a constitutionally protected right called *free speech*? Who do the police work for? How can the government imprison its own citizens–doesn’t it work *for* the people? How can local CIVIL SERVANTS be so blind to wars and real terror and so bent on fear-mongering that they call breasts terrorism thereby marking the breast owners enemies of the state? What if that was your wife, aunt, friend, daughter? What if these elected officials bending to corporate will are your grand-father, father, uncle, friend, or son?

One day, there isn’t enough money for you or for your children and you lose your home which was illegally foreclosed on by Bank of America. After that, you find yourself sleeping on a bench in a park and your children wards of the state. You are now a criminal considering you don’t pay monthly rent nor do you have a physical address. As if that weren’t bad enough, you’ve become “what’s wrong with the world” and you didn’t even know it was coming. It slowly invaded while your children were being sold into the same capitalistic slavery that put you there. It is a system of oppression and control sold to you for three monthly installments of $9.99, expressly delivered to you at the low price of your free will. No thanks necessary, just your loyalty will ensure your “regularly scheduled programming”.

So here you sit while so many of your fellow human beings eat shitty food, watch violent television full of hyper-sexualized images, and view the world from Facebook, happily numbed from the brain down, while real activists are on the streets revolting against the state, being chased by the Bicycle Brigade, and reacquainting themselves with their civil liberties. They realize that this system of slavery with its oppressive laws must be torn down because it *IS* slavery, it is corrupt, and it is *too big* to re-form into something good for humanity. They rage against the machine. They are not afraid because they are too many to fail. Join them.

Occupy. Revolt. Smash Capitalism.

Opinion: From Leaderless to Leaderful

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Author: Reid Kimball
Editor: OE Communications
This opinion piece was approved by the OE Communications committee by receiving the minimum number of at least 6 votes needed for publication.

The Register Guard’s front page article “Protest Pioneers” written by Edward Russo, stated that people within Occupy Eugene (OE) “dislike calling themselves leaders.”

This is true for the most part. I have heard on numerous occasions talking with my brothers and sisters within OE that “there are no leaders,” and “we are a leaderless movement” because Occupy Wall Street was founded on the principles of being a people-powered, leaderless, non-hierarchical movement.

However, I have a differing opinion I would like to share with you all now. Rather than OE being a leaderless movement, or a movement with a few key people who are regarded as leaders, both inside and out, I suggest the following: Occupy Eugene is a protest movement in which everyone who participates is a leader.

We are not a leaderless movement. We are a leaderful movement. You, myself, and everyone in between are leaders. Think about it for a second.

We are making many sacrifices of energy, finances, and time. The sacrifices we make require leadership.

We are taking a proactive initiative to speak our rage against the economic injustices surrounding us; that takes leadership.

We are actively working on solving today’s most pressing problems; that takes leadership.

I joined Occupy Eugene because for once I felt empowered to do something about the governmental and systemic problems. Our energy and momentum depends on creating and maintaining that feeling of personal empowerment.

Calling ourselves a leaderless movement does not feel empowering to me. When we say, “there are no leaders,” I have to ask, who then takes responsibility for the mistakes that we have made?

Without leaders, how do we make ourselves accountable? How do we push ourselves to improve, to grow, and to win this fight against reckless capitalistic greed?

I don’t believe calling ourselves a leaderless movement gives us the personal power we all deserve. Nothing short of leadership is required of us if we are to improve our healthcare, our global economy, our government, our environment, and more. The job we have willingly accepted is daunting, but we can do it if we all believe that each and every one of us is a leader.

Every single day, each one of us commits a plethora of acts that demonstrate leadership. Some of us may commit more than another, but the quantity matters little. There are no ranks, no ladders, no silly job titles, just you and I, working together as equal leaders.

What if you don’t want to be a leader? That’s fine. But know that when I look you in the eye, what I see is a leader because your presence in the same room as I, tells me you have the passion, the smarts, and the leadership qualities we need. We need more people like you.

Occupy Eugene Responds to Eviction by City Council

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Occupy Eugene is saddened by the City Council’s decision to evict protestors from Washington-Jefferson Park only 5 days before Christmas. The emergency meeting and decision to evict represents a clear betrayal of the collaborative relationship established between OE and the City.

This decision will serve as further motivation to protesters here in Eugene and around the country to continue to struggle against unjust laws and regulations that propagate social and economic injustice.

Occupy Eugene is grateful that some attempt was made to accommodate the immediate need for a safe place for homeless folks currently living at Washington Jefferson park by expanding car camping. However, this limited action will have little long-term impact on the problem of homelessness in Eugene and does nothing to replace the ability of the community to come together to solve its own problems.

Over the course of the occupation in Washington Jefferson Park, the citizens of Eugene, homeless and not, have created a community to address immediate problems and root causes of homelessness.

For the first time, many of Eugene’s homeless population have had a consistent safe place to sleep, three meals a day, medical care, job skills training, and a community to engage with based around mutual respect and equality. We invite the City of Eugene to take up a similar strategy in their attempts to address homelessness.

As was reiterated in the City Council meeting by Mayor Kitty Piercy, we hope that the eviction will happen peacefully without any force or violence. The official Occupy Eugene response to an eviction by the City of Eugene will be nonviolent.

The Occupation will continue with or without camp.

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Occupy Eugene responds to Police Expenditure

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Occupy Eugene applauds the city council for recognizing that homelessness is an issue requiring more significant attention, and for allocating greater funding for Eugene’s houseless population.

However, Occupy Eugene did not request funds for an increased police presence at the site, and maintains that the site has been running adequately with the help of volunteer peace keepers and calling the EPD if necessary. On many occasions, the systems in place at the site have demonstrated their effectiveness by providing emergency medical resources, and the community in camp has increasingly begun removing individuals who are unable or unwilling to abide by the rules regarding peaceful and lawful co-existence adopted by the General Assembly.

The extra expense of police presence to tax payers is not at the request of Occupy Eugene.

Eugene Occupy Camp: To Be Or Not To Be

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Two of the most experienced, effective and respected community leaders working with the homeless population, Chuck Gerard of the White Bird Clinic and the Rev. Dan Bryant of First Christian Church in Eugene provide interesting observations about the surprising impact of the Eugene Occupy Camp and how its unprecedented work with the homeless is helping them in their work and the entire Eugene community.

“It makes no sense to me to try and dismantle the camp unless the city comes up with an alternative that is at least viable or better, in the middle of winter it seems ridiculous to take this thing apart right now…Unless there is a better resource, I think that Occupy Should not only be left wehre it is but be supported in doing what it is trying to acomplish”

-Chuck Gerard of the White Bird Clinic

Check out video link here.

Also available in : Spanish

Eugene City Council Decides on Camping Exemption…Sort Of

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The City Council Chamber was packed out the door on Monday evening as supporters (and a few opponents) of Occupy Eugene turned out to discuss the planned vote on whether to extend OE’s camping ban exemption. Because of the limited time, and due to the large numbers of respondents, Mayor Piercy decided to limit each respondent’s time to 2 minutes rather than the usual 3 so that the most voices could be heard.

After lengthy discussion, in a surprise 7-1 decision, the Eugene City Council agreed to postpone judgement on whether to extend the exemption on camping within city limits that has been offered to Occupy Eugene in Washington Jefferson Park, set to expire on December 15. All the members apart from Councilman Mike Clark (Ward 5) voted to:

Delay the final vote until December 14 (Wednesday).
Send City Manager Jon Ruiz to the OE site to discuss with representative of OE concerning the conditions of the motion to be taken up on December 14.
Contingent on whether a general agreement on the outline of the plan to be put before the City Council, Manager Ruiz will make a recommendation to the Council about whether or not he considers the plan to be likely to succeed in good faith.

The motion in question is still in flux, but it represents a “modified option 3” from City Manager Ruiz’s presentation to the City Council at Monday’s workgroup session, which lays out:

A 45-day timeline for the establishment of a task force for transition to “alternate services” (other, existing human services providers);
Recruitment of a local human services provider (likely Saint Vincent de Paul, who have expressed support in this role) to offer coordination support and oversight of a transition away from exclusively camp-provided services;
Regular updates to the City Council or City Manager on the progress of these initiatives.

On Wednesday, if Manager Ruiz finds that OE is supportive of this plan of action, he will recommend that it be adopted by the City Council and it will be put to a vote. The timeline for the transition could be in flux, as could a number of other elements of the plan, which was adjusted and adopted in an impromptu manner during the City Council session tonight when no second could be found for Councilwoman Betty Taylor’s (Ward 2) motion to extend the exemption unconditionally until May 15, 2012.

Several main concerns were raised by council members during the meeting. Councilman Pat Farr (Ward 6) reiterated his ongoing concern for health and safety issues and suggested that these were his primary points of opposition to extending the exemption. He has pledged to visit the camp to see whether these issues are being addressed in advance of Wednesday’s meeting. Councilman Mike Clark indicated his largely unwavering opposition to the plan primarily on financial grounds, and asked Manager Ruiz to provide an estimate of how many OE supporters would be likely to resist “decampment” if the extension vote does not go in OE’s favor on Wednesday.

Please note: Since the motion was developed during the meeting, no full text of it is currently available, and the minutes for City Council meetings are only available through October 31 at present. We will provide the full text of the motion once we have it.

Letter from Berkeley Veteran to Occupy Eugene

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The following came via Facebook:
“Sue and I were out for a little run this morning, and we ran, as we usually do, down to the site. Most folks were asleep (trying to stay warm, we assumed) but we met a gentleman our age who said he was a veteran of Berkeley in the 60’s, and had come to give us this letter. It was typed, not word-processed, so I re-typed it in a document that I can send folks who want a copy. I also have the 3 typed copies he gave us–where should they go?”

I thought on this website would be a great place for the letter, it follows below.

Honorable and Intrepid Occupiers:

I am speaking to you across nearly three generations to advise you that you are doing exactly the right thing at exactly the right time.

We who have gone before, urge you to remain strong and committed to our common cause.

We who were at the Athens of the West back in the day (CA 1965-70) also had a lot on our plate: stopping the obscene war in Viet Nam; pushing the Civil Rights Movement; promoting the Women’s Movement and fighting for Freedom of Speech on our own campus.

These struggles were, most often, tedious and thankless since a majority of our fellow citizens seemed not to care or even approve of our efforts. It usually felt as if nothing was happening or changing, and it seemed to many of us, at the time, that “this isn’t working.”

The “Establishment” seemed to control everything: all the levers of power, all important institutions and, of course, the lamestream press which was just as lame then as now.

When push came to shove violence was routinely used to discourage and frighten us, i.e. when we were literally surrounded by bayonet wielding National Guard troops the Governor of CA threatened a “blood bath.”

On one occasion, a helicopter was used to spray military strength teargas (really vomiting gas) over the campus plazas to disperse a peaceful sit-in.

We had only a few weapons: the truth, the goodwill of the best people, and an unshakeable, stubborn commitment to justice.

Sounds hopeless. And yet…
Look around you now. The horror of Viet Nam is now just a shameful memory and a permanent stain on the honor of this country.

Not only is Jim Crow gone forever, even in its most ignorant strongholds, but millions of people who could not vote or go to a public university now barely remember their routine humiliation. Indeed some of these people are professors in those universities.

As for the women’s issues, today the majority of university students in this country are women, and in the workplace have reached near parity with their brothers.

All in all, not bad results from what seemed then to be a struggle against hopeless odds.

We will never know for certain how much our efforts contributed to this progress, but I am certain that we mattered a lot.

When you are making history it is not possible to actually see or feel “history being made.” You can’t ascertain how effective your efforts are (or are not). But, the super-wealthy oligarchs of this nation and their political puppets are working 24 hours a day 7 days a week for total control of our future. And if they succeed, greed, corruption and poverty will sink us all.

As far as we know, each of us has just one human lifespan on this planet.

Lets make our lives matter.

L. W. Jones

P.S. I am amazed that the talking heads of major media keep asking, “What do the occupiers want?” Tell them what we told them: We want Justice.

Belittling the Occupy Movement – By Eugene Occupier Samuel Rutledge

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Recently it has come to my attention that the global Occupations are being blamed for the disorderly behavior that is taking place at many of our protest sites. This is understandable, given that the power structure is hell bent on discrediting us by any means at their disposal. It is also laughable.

The problems we are facing were not created by us, but we deign to shed light on them and so we are blamed for them. The truth is, every person at our protest is there because the system is broken. If there were no occupations, the number of people experiencing homelessness would remain unchanged. If there were no occupations, there would remain on American streets over a million runaway youth. Every day, people would be assaulted on the street, overdose on drugs on the street, urinate, defecate, sleep, and die on the street. The only thing that has changed about these problems since the occupations began is that now people are paying attention to them.

There is no way to have a protest on the street without facing the problems of the street head on. These problems are studiously ignored by politicians and the public alike. As occupiers, we will not ignore them. This is both a matter of conscience and necessity. We believe that by facing them we can begin to create opportunities for these problems to be addressed.

The problems of the street are best understood by the people who live them. In Occupy Eugene, those people self identify as Street Families. They are a collection of close knit groups with unique cultures that are as complex and nuanced as any I’m aware of. I don’t know much about Street Family cultures, but one thing I’ve learned since the occupation started is that many of them are very suspicious of charitable strangers.

This makes sense, especially when we remember that one of society’s primary tools for maintaining the current order is belittlement. Many people and organizations take a paternalistic and insulting stance toward the homeless. Every act of charity comes with strings attached. Getting access to food, shelter and clothing is a traumatic and pride swallowing experience for the extremely poor.

Pride is a funny thing; even when we’re at the bottom of our luck, penniless, wracked by addiction, depression, stress, psychosis, or any combination of the above, our pride still drives us. To have it insulted still hurts.

Mark it down, too; this isn’t their fault. Very few people set out to become homeless. It is class warfare that drives people into homelessness. They are victims, collateral damage in the war to move all resources into the hands of the few and the powerful. And as with any self respecting power structure, ours is expert at blaming victims.

When we’re talking about the problems of the street, it’s not just about long term single homeless adults. There are over a million runaway youth in the United States. They come from all manner of backgrounds, and they are frequently victimized on the street. When the topic of street kids comes up, it’s hard to get away from the question of blame. Some people blame the kids. Some people blame the parents. I have a really hard time with all of this.

When I was a teenager, I ran away from my parents home. My parents are loving, compassionate people. They are far from perfect, as am I, and as is everyone else involved in this movement, this city, this world.

It would be dishonest to blame my parents for what happened then. It would be dishonest to blame myself. To the extent that there’s blame to lay (and to a large extent there’s not), I place it in the same blood stained hands that hold the brunt of the responsibility for our social problems. They are they hands of a broken system, and they are the hands would rather protect that broken system than fight for justice.

My running away was the product of a complex web of interactions involving a cast of players that extends far beyond my immediate family. Those interactions were mediated by a culture of domination, oppression, and intolerance. It is a culture that rushes to blame victims, yet somehow always fails to identify structural problems. It is a culture that insists upon personal accountability, while ignoring the context of personal stories.

The problems of the street won’t ever go away until we address their structural root causes. The occupation is addressing those root causes. We are addressing the systematic inequalities that lead to homelessness, to runaway youth, to widespread substance abuse, and to untreated mental illness. We are directly addressing a civilization that refuses to treat its people when they are sick, and instead casts them out into the street.

These problems are not new. We did not cause them. We have, however, brought them together into one place. In doing so we have brought them into the light. This has been uncomfortable for use. It is never pleasant to face one’s problems, but if we wish to address them – both symptomatically in the short term, and by eliminating their cause in the long term – we must first be willing to look at them.

This is a real issue of personal accountability. We must each be accountable to ourselves to think realistically about unpleasant realities. As long as the occupation is on the street, we will live with the problems of the street. The street is the last refuge for honest people in a civilization built on lies. The street is where our toxic society sends the people it deems disposable to die slow deaths. The street is the site of the greatest inequalities and the greatest injustices of our age.

We, as members of this society, must hold ourselves accountable to refugees of our economic system and work with them compassionately. We must hold ourselves accountable to empower the powerless, and to never dehumanize or objectify someone on account of their economic status, their mental health status, their addiction status, or any other account.

This is not a distraction from our cause. It is our cause, as much as any direct action. If we ignore the issues of the street, they will overtake and subsume us, and rather than being the heroes of the movement we, too, will become its victims. If we can succeed in addressing the issues of the street, while also addressing the issues of Wall Street, we will change the course of history.

-Samuel Rutledge