Best day yet! Don't know what the media is saying but not less than three thousand people marched today [my guestimate is half again that many]. I don't know if the tentifada reached 500 as hoped, but Westlake is full, I'm told CHP is as well, and those who came but couldn't find space to camp have been advised to move north to Denny Park. All in all a whopping success.
Equally so on the ideological front. A much more realistic tone was taken by most who spoke at the Assembly. Motions were made for coordinating with other Occupy- groups around the world. And, at long last, it was decided to develop an agenda. Previously our demands were directed solely at the mayor's office and had to do with defending/perpetuating our occupation, now there is a groundswell of support for a national/international platform. Our list of grievances wasn't nearly as long as I would have liked, nor as radical, nonetheless, the movement now has a mission. And morale couldn't be higher.
I must confess to you, dear reader, that I despaired that OccupySeattle would never find a common voice and a clear message. Despite the disappointing start and all its vacuous, anodyne sloganeering, OS has now found an identity and a sense of gravity and purpose now prevail. It is much too early to be optimistic, but we seem to have undergone that critical transformation from factious group to collegial, united force, and are now impelled by the ethos of the collective and its own unalterable, irresistible inertia.
A genial, ennobling solidarity wafts through the park these days. Who knows, maybe this time...
