IRVINE — On Tuesday the Irvine City Council voted unanimously to permit the OccupyOC-Irvine demonstrators to camp on the Civic Center lawn for another two weeks. An agreement between the demonstrators and the city was set to expire today, is now set to expire on December 17th unless the agreement is extended again.
Mayor Pro-Tem Beth Krom praised the demonstrators for being respectful and living up to what they said they would do: educate and encourage conversation.
“It’s hard when you watch the news and see what is happening around the country,” she said. “We really have a very respectful group of people. It’s not a perfect occupation, occupations usually have sides that are unpleasant.”
The overnight demonstrations have their critics however. The primary complaint is that people will drive by and honk their horns at night disturbing residents in the neighboring residential area. The city has placed electronic road signs asking folks to refrain from honking, and that has reduced some of the disturbances. Read more in this OCRegister story.
The bigger issue for the OccupyOC-Irvine demonstrators is the reality that their overnight occupations cannot go on indefinitely. Eventually the city will need to water the lawn and ask the demonstration to move on to a new phase.
While it is a goal of the demonstrators to spur change in government policy at the national level, those changes are not really accomplished by occupying a park. In a democracy, the best was to make a change is to elect legislative representation that will move forward the desired changes politically.
The astro-turf TEA Party was able to translate their much smaller demonstrations into a formidable political movement in the lead up to the 2010 elections. The Occupy movement must shift its focus to grassroots organization of a political campaign focused on shifting the balance of power.
The OccupyOC demonstrators can serve their cause far more effectively by organizing the political movement necessary to guide the results of the 2012 primary and general elections towards electing legislators who will serve the needs of the 99% of Americans who are suffering for the benefit of a few millionaires and billionaires.
OccupyOC-Irvine, now that you have our attention, it’s time to get out of your tents and start registering and motivating voters to participate in the process of democracy.
Morons.
I agree.
“Eventually the city will need to water the lawn and ask the demonstration to move on to a new phase.”
(1) Start the ‘new phase’ by visiting the Irvine Mayor’s, District 45 congressional candidate web site, (All websites at http://www.politics1.com). Study his “Issues” page and search for content that goes beyond Democrat Party talking points. Absent unique content, then move on to #2.
(2) “Educate and encourage conversation.” Educate Mayor Sukhee Kang. The notional derivatives exposure of the 4 largest market participants was $235 trillion as of June 30, 2011, which was a 35% increase since the end of 2008. (World GDP is only $60 trillion).
http://seekingalpha.com/article/309571-are-derivatives-accounting-rules-helping-the-big-banks-cook-their-books?source=from_friend
How Glass-Steagall works, information graphic,
http://www.larouchepac.com/gs-infographic
I am sure the six people camping out are grateful for any donation of food on Thanksgiving. What a pathetic protest
Henry Gattis has invited all occupiers to his home in Santa Ana for turkey. Except there is no Henry Gattis.
Sean Mill er…. Henry Gattis already mooches off his mother so what’s a few more mooches?
I don’t think we’ll be seeing Henry around anymore; he claims his kids were friends with Claudio’s kids and Claudio had a comment on Voice of OC claiming his kids have no friends with the last name Gattis. I’m sure he’ll have no trouble adopting a new identity
Happy Thanksgiving Henry Gattis. No one is censoring your comments or deleting them here because you are not making any. Perhaps you’d like to explain why Claudio doesn’t know you and his kids don’t know anyone named Gattis. So please stop with the BS at NSA
Thank you Robert. I like that fact sheet. I hope it is correct. I intend to use it with Occupy.
There’s an Occupy Irvine?!?!?! Who knew?
Darn, I hate to be accused of agreeing with Larry Agran on anything, but on this one he is right. The protesters are not hurting anything, the noise issues have been resolved and everyone is cooperating and behaving themselves. Let them continue to exercise their Constitutional rights as much as they want.
Having said the above, I still believe the protesters are trying to put a band aid on an arterial bleeding wound, with their complaints against Wall Street, Banks and Corporations. Those are merely the symptoms of the cancer that has infected our nation. That cancer is called “Congress” and includes both Republicans and Democrats. That is where the protesters should be focusing their anger and frustration. When they wise up and get to the root cause of the problems, I will join them on the protest lines. However, don’t expect to see me sleeping in a tent in the cold.