Day four of my Occupy Experience October 8th 2011 I didn't wake up till 8:30.

I slept soundly all night long. There was a heavy dew last night, but my rain fly kept everything pretty dry. It was not too cold last night, and it looks like it is going to be a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. There is an air of excitement on the Plaza. It was decided after I went to sleep that one of the purposes of being in D.C. was to occupy Freedom Plaza. Occupy means just that, Occupy. They had a concensus that we would put up tents and suffer the consequences. Anyone that put up a tent must realize that they could be arrested. Hell yeah! The first thing Mark and I did, even before coffee, was to put up our tents. There are several grassy areas on the edge of the Plaza, so we claimed us a spot. All of a sudden tents were going up everywhere. Freedom Plaza was Occupied. There is a row of about 20 port-a-potties on the west end of the Plaza. Every night they come and hose them down and by morning they are dry and clean as a whistle. I got two protest signs and a change of clean clothes and a package of baby wipes and headed for the port-a-potties. I put one sign on the floor to stand on , one sign on the seat to put my clean clothes on, took my dirty clothes off, took about 15 baby wipes and took a complete bath, clean hair and all. I learned the advantages of baby wipes when Matt and I hiked the Trail. The next time you get your hands dirty from changing a tire, get grease all over your hands, grab a couple of baby wipes and see what a good job they do. I came out of those port-apotties fresh as a daisy. We had a wonderful breakfast. I ate ten dollars worth again. The Homeless were showing up again. They were embraced by all. Most people are not aware of what being homeless means. No place to sleep, except on the streets out in the elements. No place to bathe. No place to cook a meal, even if you could get something to cook. No place to go to the bathroom. Not many places let the homeless come in to use their restrooms. And the sad part is nobody really gives a shit. They are not viewed as humans. More like the rats or squirrels. Something you see, or look at, but they're not your problem. Therefore you don't give a shit. Another sad thing is that I saw a lot of homeless that were mentally ill. But nobody gives a shit. The Occupiers do. Maybe we as human beings should be required to live hungry, for a month or two, to realize what hunger really means. Maybe we should have to live homeless for a month or two, to really know what homeless means. Maybe we should have to experience war first hand and be put in a position where we have to kill another human being, to experience what war really is. Better still, I have the perfect solution for preventing wars. We have a referendum on the 2012 general election ballot, where you have a choice to be for, or against all our wars of aggression. One square you mark if you are for the wars, or one you mark if you are against the wars. If you mark the one for the wars, if you are between the ages of 18 and 70, male or female, the next day you are in the military. The ones between 18 and 40 will do the fighting, and the ones between 40 and 70 can do the driving, cooking, whatever needs doing. Politicians are not exempt. we will give them a leave of absence. I wonder how many of the 130 million plus voters in the 2008 election would have marked the for wars square. I would bet my life all 535 of our leaders would have. Yea, right. I think Linsey Graham should be drafted today. They had a General Assembly meeting after breakfast and nothing was planned until 2:00 pm. I had a man come up and interview me. I think he was baffled by my southern accent. I really laid it on heavy. Most of the time he didn't have a clue what I was saying. I used a lot of "fixins", "yonders', "up'ers" and no "ing" on any of my words Said he was doing interviews to post on the internet. I think he was a government agent. A young lady that said she was from a Maryland radio station interviewed me. I think it was my charm, reather then my accent that attracted her. I think she was an agent too. You really get paranoid knowing the goverment has the authority to arrest you and send you to Gitmo. No reason, no questions asked. They just haul your ass off, never to be seen or heard from again. That's alright though. I hear the weather is find down there this time of the year. There is another Occupy group that came to D.C. before the Occupy Freedom Plaza group. They are about 100 in number and are made up of mostly young kids. They Occupy McPhearson Park on "K'" street. "K" street is where all the Lobbyist have offices. I read once there are as many as 2000 lobbyist on the hill when they have any major legislation going on. Anyhow about 10:00 the whole bunch came marching into Freedom Plaza to show support for our group. A kid named Mango Youngblood was playing "This land is your land" on the banjo and the whole bunch was singing while marching around the Plaza. They had them go up on the stage, and they did a song Mango had written about

Occupiers and it was pretty good. When they came off the stage, I was talking to "Mango Banjo" and told him he had lit a flame under a bunch of people that was kinda in limbo. It was a good experience. Ralph Nader was a guest speaker and he really gave a good speech. He spoke for about 20 minutes. He spoke about showing up and staying. Not for a day, but ever how long it took. He spoke against Crony Capitalism, Corporate Capitalism and casino Wall Street Capitalism and Globalism. He stated that U.S. corporations were born in the U.S., rose to profit on the backs of American workers. They went to Washington to be bailed out by American taxpayers, and when they got in trouble overseas they called on the American military to bail them out decade after decade, and what is their response to the American people. Is it graditude? No, their response is we're out of here, with your jobs and your industries. There is no allegiance to this country except to control it. The argument is, these corporations that have been given tax breaks, who have been deregulated without law and order, who have not been prosecuted for their Wall Street crimes that collasped the economy on the backs of the American workers, tax payers and investors are not held accountable for their actions. They have taken the country from us and we are going to reoccupy it, and win it back for the people of this country.....There was more but I failed to write it down. About 2:00 there was a huge protest march that went down and gathered in front of the Capital. I don't know the number but the crowd streched out as far you could see. They then went down to the National Air and Space Museum. There was a man across the street from the museum that had a tent and sound system set up and he and another fellow were playing and singing. He said he had won a ruling during the Reagan era that gave him the right to do this. He told me what the deal was and I had it recorded, but that's another story. They shut down the Museum. I had no idea how long they planned to stay there so I headed back. I wanted to walk around Washington and enjoy the sights. As luck would have it I missed out on the pepper spraying and the three arrests that were made at the Museum. Decided to catch up on my journal. There were no more marches scheduled for the day. We had supper around 7:00. It was some kind of cabbage stew as best I could tell. The coffee was good if nothing else. We just hung around the Plaza. They had a General assembly meeting at 8:00 but I didn't care for all the discussions. Whatever they decide on was alright with me. Us professional protestors don't care what we are protesting, just as long as we protest. I finally turned in around 11:30.