Fwd: Re: ANS -- Occupy Sandy: Onetime Protesters Find New Cause

Hi -- One of our readers sent this in response to my post.
--Kim



>Donate directly (and easily) at:
>
>https://www.wepay.com/donations/occupy-sandy-cleanup-volunteers
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Kim Cooper <kimc@astound.net>
>To: Joyce Segal <joyceck@myastound.net>
>Subject: ANS -- Occupy Sandy: Onetime Protesters Find New Cause
>Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 10:40:04 -0800
>
>There's a theme emerging, and it is: The Occupy Movement has NOT
>disappeared. It has gone from the front pages of the news because the
>violence is down, but the Movement still is going strong. Watch for it.
>Here's the sort of thing they are doing now:
>Find it here:
>http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/occupy-sandy-onetime-protesters-find-17685552#.UJ6c32clqSp
>
>--Kim
>
>
>Home> U.S.
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>
>Occupy Sandy: Onetime Protesters Find New Cause
>[]
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>
>By MEGHAN BARR Associated Press
>NEW YORK November 10, 2012 (AP)
>
>You might be surprised at what has become a lauded and effective relief
>organization for victims of Superstorm Sandy: Occupy Wall Street.
>
>The social media savvy that helped Occupy protesters create a
>grass-roots global movement last year ­ one that ultimately collapsed
>under its leaderless format ­ is proving a strength as members fan out
>across New York to deliver aid including hot meals, medicine and
>blankets.
>
>They're the ones who took food and water to Glenn Nisall, a 53-year-old
>resident of Queens' hard-hit and isolated Rockaway section who lost
>power and lives alone, with no family nearby.
>
>"I said: 'Occupy? You mean Occupy Wall Street?'" he said. "I said:
>'Awesome, man. I'm one of the 99 percent, you know?'"
>
>Occupy Wall Street was born in late 2011 in a lower Manhattan plaza
>called Zuccotti Park, with a handful of protesters pitching tents and
>vowing to stay put until world leaders offered a fair share to the "99
>percent" who don't control the globe's wealth.
>
>The world heard the cry as that camp grew and inspired other ones around
>the globe. Ultimately, though, little was accomplished in the ways of
>policy change, and Occupy became largely a punch line. But core members,
>and a spirit, have persisted and found a new cause in Occupy Sandy.
>
>It started at St. Jacobi Church in Brooklyn the day after the storm,
>where Occupiers set up a base of operations and used social media like
>Twitter and Facebook to spread the word.
>
>There is a sense of camaraderie reminiscent of Zuccotti, as young people
>with scruffy beards and walkie-talkies plan the day's activities.
>Donations come in by the truckload and are sorted in the basement, which
>looks like a clearinghouse for every household product imaginable, from
>canned soup and dog food to duvet covers.
>Superstorm Sandy.JPEG
>AP
>With their mother nearby, Mario Pineda, 12,... View Full Caption
>
>"This is young people making history," said Mark Naison, a professor at
>Fordham University who has been studying Occupy Wall Street. "Young
>people who are refusing to let people suffer without putting themselves
>on the line to do something about it."
>
>Now the group has dozens of relief centers across the city and a stream
>of volunteers who are shuttled out to the most desperate areas. It is
>partnering with local community and volunteer organizations.
>
>A recent post on Occupy Sandy's Facebook page announced: "Attention! If
>anyone in Rockaway needs to have their basement pumped, please contact
>Suzanne Hamalak at suzybklyn(at)aol.com. Her family wants to help and
>have industrial pumps...they will do it for free....."
>
>In Rockaway Park, Occupier Diego Ibanez, 24, has been sleeping on the
>freezing floor of a community center down the street from a row of
>charred buildings destroyed by a fire.
>
>"You see a need and you fulfill it," he explained. "There's not a boss
>to tell you that you can't do this or you can't do that. Zuccotti was
>one of the best trainings in how to mobilize so quickly."
>
>There is little public transportation in the neighborhood, where most
>people still don't have power and many homes were wrecked. Occupy has
>supplied residents with hot meals, batteries and blankets. Medics and
>nurses knock on doors to check on the elderly.
>
>At one Occupy outpost in Rockaway, residents wandered in recently off
>the garbage-strewn streets looking for medicine.
>
>They lined up in an ice-cold abandoned store that had been hastily
>transformed into a makeshift pharmacy. Gauze bandages and bottles of
>disinfectant were piled on tables behind a tattered curtain.
>
>"I think we wouldn't be able to survive without them," said Kathleen
>Ryan, who was waiting for volunteers to retrieve her diabetes
>medication, stamping her feet on the plywood floor to keep warm. "This
>place is phenomenal. This community. They've helped a great deal."
>
>Is this Occupy Wall Street's finest hour? In the church basement, Carrie
>Morris paused from folding blankets into garbage bags and smiled at the
>idea.
>
>"We always had mutual aid going on," she said. "It's a big part of what
>we do. That's the idea, to help each other. And we want to serve as a
>model for the larger society that, you know, everybody should be doing
>this."