So many people - who’s at this party, anyway ?
There’s so many different types. ‘Course, I don’t see much of the daytime crowd – apparently lots of wall street types and regular people just hanging out, talking and arguing – a big out-door debate society.
But I’m there at night, different crew - (or as one guy so aptly shouted it last night, while flapping his arms and making woo-woo sounds, “the freaks come out at night, the freaks at night !”).
Sanitation Guy - Cleaning up the kitchen area, I meet this tall, thin, slow fella with a (very) big cart and lots of separated trash. He’s from “Sanitation” (one of the occupiers’ committees -“Sanitation” takes care of clean-up at the Park). I ask him what the process is, what I should do with kitchen trash. Wow, this guy couldn’t string a sentence together. I listened as best I could; he explained how I should take the wax paper out of the pizza boxes, put it in its’ own place. He turns to me, nods very gravely, “Zero Waste, man. Zero Waste”, and trundles his cart away. Wow – I think about reducing trash, but I don’t practice “Zero Waste”. He does, just like that. If I saw this guy on my block, I’d think about giving him a dollar – but who has a clearer vision of how to save resources, him or me ? Who is more sophisticated, him or me ? As a practical matter, who is doing more, him or me ? Is this what this whole thing is about ?
Kid - There’s a kid hanging out back of the kitchen. He’s articulate, friendly and clearly having a good time. I see he’s got a bottle in a bag. I can smell it, Jim Beam or some cheap whiskey (absolutely verboten – the occupiers have adopted a “Good Neighbor Policy” that prohibits alcohol or drugs on the site). But he’s a kid, he’s there and I’m not like, surprised or anything. I’m just wondering what it means to be speaking out, caring, compassionate …. and drunk. It’s messy, his intentions are messy – is that part of this too ? We like our heroes neat, our villains too – but that’s not happening here. How much of that is what this whole thing is about ?
Alec - Later on, quite late, there’s a sudden crowd in the kitchen, with camera lights and everything. It’s not the cops, it’s …. Alec Baldwin. Hey, I don’t know, he was just there, promised to buy 20 people breakfast and split. So this whole thing is about that, too.
Happy Holidays - And even later, 9 Hassidic jews come into the park, walk around asking questions and talking, friendly but with that insistent Chassidic inquiring voice “Vat are you doing ? Vat’s this ? Vat’s dat ?”. It being New York, some tall black guy walks up and says “where’s your tent, where’s your tent, guys ?”. “Vat ? Vat ?” they say. “It’s Sukkos, man, SUKKOS, where’s your tent ?”. Lot of laughter from everybody at that one. Come to think of it, I remember (some) Hassidim party and drink at Sukkos. No wonder they were in the park, having fun at 1:00 am. Maybe they should get together with the Kid.
… and it IS Sukkot. One of the tent’s up here is a ‘Pop up sukkah”. Wow, good idea.
Another Sanitation Guy – Late night, I see another guy pushing a broom. I thank him, “That’s really great of you to be doing that”. He says “Well, if I don’t do it, somebody else will. I love that”. I walk away, thinking, oh that’s neat. Then I realize – he didn’t say “Well, if I don’t do it, it won’t get done”. He said “…if I don’t do it, somebody else will…”. He’s doing it because …. He’s in a group where he can count on everyone and they can count on him ?? Is THIS what this whole thing is about ? I don’t know, but I’ll thinking about that one for a while.
Gotta go, gotta go see what the rain has brought to the site …
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