In July, I marched down Main Street in Ventura with my SEIU Local 721 brothers and sisters as part of the Ventura County Fair Parade. We chanted about good jobs for the economy and about economic fairness. Crickets. The message was still new. Blame overpaid executives and a system that only rewards the rich?
Fast forward to yesterday’s #OccupyVentura march and demonstrations and there was a very different scene. Children, young adults, and old activists where there with hand made signs in tow. Over one hundred strong, by my estimation.
As cars passed by many honked and there were lots of thumbs up as people chanted “We are the 99%.” There was a definite sense of support for what was going on. I think a lot of the passing cars were there for the express purpose of supporting the movement or they would have looked more perturbed about the heavy traffic.
This photostream below may cause you to ask more questions about the Occupy movement than you would have. The crowd was not an autonomous group of young college aged idealists. There were parents with their kids, county workers, old time politicians, and a sizable number of media folks trying to get the story on why the usual laid back community was now motivated enough to stand and shout on an unusually bright October day.
Could this be the political awakening that makes us all more conscious of what is going on in our society?