The last smelly reminder that Occupy Nashville once occupied Memorial Plaza is about to be history. Occupy Nashville is losing their porta pottie. They still meet on the plaza four times a week for general assembly according to their website. A topic of the next general assembly will be what to do about the city removing the porta pottie. They will meet and wiggle their little fingers until they have reached consensus. (read more)
Occupy Nashville is planning a day of protest, teach-ins, and marches tomorrow, which is May 1. May 1st, as you probably know, is the International Workers' Day and a day which has always been important to Communist and other left wing movements. It was an official holiday in countries such as the People's Republic of China, Cuba and the former Soviet Union. Is is a favorite day for left-wing protest in America and around the world.
Since the Occupy movement has fallen apart and pretty much ended with the pitiful remnant of losers turning on each other, and since the Occupy May Day rallies across the Nation have not been given much publicity, I am expecting that, for the most part, they will be a big flop. Maybe in Seattle and New York and a few other places, they will be able to generate a crowd and wreck a little havoc, but I doubt Nashville's rally will turn into a violent rampage.
I am hesitant to even mention the event, not wanting to give Occupy any publicity. I hope the TV stations fail to cover their publicity-seeking event. If anyone wants to know more about what Occupy Nashville has planned, you can follow this link.
The Occupy camp looked really pitiful in the rain. I counted nine pitched tents and about three or four more that were either tents not pitched or tarps. It was hard to tell. The camp out did not have the feel of a community. Along the west side of the plaza were three tents and a collapsed tent or a tarp, and some distance away in the northeast corner of the plaza were four tents and far to the south of the plaza was another tent. They were widely scattered. |
| Jason Steen plans to be arrested |
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| Elizabeth Barger, the Tennessee organizer of Code Pink, was going to take part in the Women's Event which was to include some dancing. She said it would have to be postponed. "We couldn't dance in this rain," she said. "We would break our neck." She said she had not camped out saying she was getting to old for that. |
Occupy Nashville called for a "Day of Rage" at the state capital on March 7th. About 100 people showed up - including media. This picture shows most of the crowd - I blew it up in Photoshop and counted exactly 80 people who were clearly not media. There were maybe 10 people standing outside the frame to the right or at the top of the steps outside the frame. Most of the people were with the Campus Workers Union, complaining about not being paid enough. Also, the use of adjunct faculty seemed to irritate them, though there was no Adjunct Faculty Members Union there.
International Women’s Day Celebration Event March 8, 2012
Occupy Nashville Hosts International Women’s Day Celebration Event March 8, 201211:30am to 1:00pmat Legislative Plaza with a march to Broadway Street BridgeWomen make up 51% of the world’s population but 70% of the world’s poor. Women perform 66% of the world’s work, produce 50% of the food, but earn 10% of the income and own less than 1% of the world’s property.
Women’s work continues to be unpaid, underpaid and undervalued, making women’s contribution invisible to economic indicators and ineligible for the rewards reaped by the so called “productive” members of society.
Over half of the homeless are women and children, often fleeing domestic violence and neglect.
Everyone is invited to participate and join Nashville women as they make a strong statement for women’s rights and economic justice in Nashville and around the world! You and we are the 99%.
As Occupy Nashville fades away they prove they can still draw a crowd of about 100 to their protest of the day. How long can they keep that up? When the same 100 people show up every day to protest something different it is not long until everyone losses interest. A daily protest cannot get daily news coverage. I bet today's 100 will shrink every day until this time next month they are down to a core group of 12. I bet tomorrow's protest will not match today's 100. Maybe I should not even report it. They have become insignificant and boring. A Google search did not reveal any coverage of today's Nashville protest beyond the Occupy related meetup and blogs and Facebook page.Meet at Legislative Plaza at 11:30am. The schedule of events includes a welcome and remarks by organizers, a dance and time for mingling, and a march to meet up with activists from Join Me On The Bridge/Women for Women International/Women In Black/CodePink, at the Broadway Street Bridge (near the Union Station Hotel) in downtown Nashville (about a 10-15 minute walk). The march will leave plaza at approximately 12:15pm.
Bring drums, musical instruments, colored cloth, signs, anything to add to the event. For further information contact Elizabeth Barger at npjceliz@gmail.com or pr@occupynashville.org.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A proposal aimed at stopping Occupy Nashville protesters from staying overnight at the Capitol complex has passed the Senate.The Occupation is almost over! The seige is to be lifted! The War Memorial Plaza to be liberated! I hope our Govenor does not dissapoint by stalling. Governor Haslam, Sign it now and clean the plaza tommorrow!
The measure was approved 20-10 on Thursday. The companion bill passed the House 70-26 last week. The legislation will now return to the lower chamber for concurrence after an amendment was added. 'Occupy Nashville' Bill Passes Senate 20-10 - NewsChannel5.com
"A committee of the state House of Representative sent a bill to remove
Occupy Nashville protesters from the state Capitol to the House floor
after increasing the bill’s penalty to nearly a year in jail or a $2,500
fine." (link)
Ok, Occupy! Don't be intimidated! Resist the effort to be moved. Lock arms and sing together, "I shall not be, I shall not be moved, I shall not be, I shall not be moved." Wiggle your little fingers in a message of consensus to not be moved. You can continue your occupation in jail for up to one year! Do it! Don't fade away! Show 'em what your made of. Occupy the jail! Occupy the jail!
As reported by Channel 5 news, last night the Fire Marshall turned off the power to Occupy Nashville. It is about damn time! Ever since October when Occupy first started camping out on Legislative Plaza they have been using free electricity provided by the state. Why?
OK, I know a court ruled that the imposition of a curfew violated Occupy's right to protest and rather than the State aggressively fighting that, the State rolled over and played dead. So, we could blame the long occupy on the Courts. I can even understand the initial court ruling. However, it is ridiculous that Occupy can take over the Plaza permanently and camp out on public property.
The most ridiculous of the ridiculous however, is why the state gave them free electricity. There is no constitutional right to have the State provide protesters with free electrical hook-ups.
According to the Channel five report, "protesters were using a single outlet on Legislative Plaza to power their camp and state officials said it was a major safety hazard. Officials said the outlet was overload and melted. Fire officials were concerned about safety so they turned the outlet off." They also padlocked the outlet. Good! (See the story,)
I think Governor Haslam has looked like a real wimp in the way he has handled this. If he restores power to the protesters, I will have lost all respect for him.
In celebration of this recent news, I am dedicating this song to Occupy Nashville.
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| Governor Bill Haslam |
by Rod Williams
Los Angels Mayor Villaraigosa has ordered the shutdown of Occupy LA effective 12:01 Monday morning, saying the city can no longer "maintain the public safety of long-term encampment."
It is about damn time cities started ending their occupation. Prohibiting people from camping in areas not designated for camping is not violating anyone's right of free speech. In Nashville, should tourist have the right to camp in Centennial Park or Riverfront Park? What if the Occupy Nashville decided to move from the Plaza to the actual grounds of the Capitol? What if they decide to build more permanent structures for a long-term occupy or park campers on the grounds? Is that protected speech? To prohibit overnight camping is not violating anyone's first amendment rights no more than is prohibiting people from blocking streets.
Governor Haslam caved too easily after his first attempt to shut them down. I am beginning to lose confidence in Haslam's leadership abilities. He is looking like a weakling. We the real 99%, not the loony left occupiers, need to reclaim our public spaces.
“I think they ought to be removed,” Ramsey said. “I do.
“I’ll bet you that if I took a Boy Scout troop up there and camped out over the weekend, they wouldn’t allow them to do it. That’s just my opinion. I think they’ve gone way too far.”
I agree! If the Boy Scouts or the homeless had started camping out and cooking on the Legislative Plaza and it was not associated with this political protest, would they have been allowed to do so? Of course not. There are even public spaces that have "keep off the grass" signs. The state should push back against the judge who ordered a temporary restraining order; not, throw in the towel. If I was simply an out-of-town tourist and wanted to camp on the capitol grounds to save cost of a hotel room, would that be permitted? I don't think so. This circus of leftist, malcontents, deviants, freaks, homeless, and camaraderie-seeking, spoiled, upper middle class "youth" should be sent home or jailed.
From: Stephen Siao
Friends,
By now, I'm sure most of you have heard of our counter-protest of Occupy Nashville last night. However, if you read the Tennessean today, you definitely did not get the true story (which is, I suppose, expected). It was definitely not a kum-ba-ya moment like the Tennessean spinned it as. In fact, several of our members were called racists by Occupiers with the Tennessean reporter standing right next to them (she proceeded to interviewing them but made no mention of them being called racists!)
Here is our video response to the Tennessean's misleading article: http://www.youtube.com
I encourage you to check out WSMV, News Channel 5, WKRN, or TN Report's coverage of it, which were all accurate and fair (is that really too much to ask for nowadays??).
“We Love You” yelled the Occupy Nashville protestors as the Vandy College Republican counter protestors approached the Legislative Plaza.
“From the first moment Occupy Nashville protesters heard about the Vanderbilt students’ counterprotest, they had planned a warm welcome. Promises of cookies were made early on and actually carried out,” reports The Tennessean.
Isn’t that sweet? I mean, it really is nice that people who disagree with each other can express their points of view and it not resort to angry shouting or violence.
However, I would still urge caution. When the Occupiers scream “We Love You,” they may be talking about Che Guevara’s Revolutionary Love. Last week we saw a picture of an Occupy protestor whose tent featured a posted sign that quoted Che Guevara saying, "The True Revolutionary is guided by feelings of Love."
That revolutionary love involves lining up suspected enemies of the revolution and putting a bullet through their head. It was Che who said, "If any person has a good word for the previous government that is good enough for me to have him shot." And, "What we affirm is that we must proceed along the path of liberation even if this costs millions of atomic victims."
If an Occupier says, "I love You," you may want to ask, "what do you mean by that?"
This is a excellent analysis of the Occupy movement from Bill Whittle! I think he hits the nail on the head.
The Occupy Wall Street protesters are complaining about everything from corporations to having to repay student loans. Is America the victim of its own success? Have we created a generation of self-entitled cry babies? Has everything been so easy for so long that people expect to always have everything handed to them on a silver platter? Is Occupy the result of ingratitude, an entitlement mentality and utter lack of perspective? What the protestors need is to grow up!
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