Occupy!

I run 4-6 miles at noontime a couple of times a week with a couple of running buddies; since we're in the nation's capital we always try to investigate any protest or gathering we run by, or run by any protest or gathering we hear about. Last month, upon hearing that the authorities were going to get serious about shutting down the Occupy DC movement, we determined to run by the larger of two such tent camps in DC, the McPherson Square one just north of the White House.

We don't usually (ever) get up that way on our runs because there are too many streets to cross, unlike running on the Mall, plus the run-up to there is through some mean streets in DC when we first leave our workplace. But this was history in the making, the exposition of the ramifications of the Dubya unfunded tax cuts for the 1%. (Left: Noontime running anytime in DC.)

We got there in about 12 minutes, and encountered lots of unwashed protesters living in tents on a tiny small public square in DC as expensively suited lobbyists and lawyers from K Street and M Street strolled about at noontime, asking each other if they noticed the smell or had noticed any rats about.

Those folks don't usually go to that square on their lunch hour; now they seemed to be hoping to witness a public hanging. We didn't notice any stench or see any rats; we only saw a bunch of earnest Americans, young mostly, hoping to impart their message of effective change, just like we used to do in the 60s (I can't speak for my two running buddies, both several decades younger, but I don't think they're heartless and I certainly think they're perceptive). As I ran back to my workplace I felt energized and my two friends asked me what was up, that I was bumping up the pace by a lot.