Learning the Basics of "Occupying"

Never have I had so much difficulty understanding the motives and purposes of protesters than I have these last few days here in Sacramento.

Then again, I cannot exactly say that I have put forth the most effort or have paid an adequate amount of attention to the rallies and protests of “Occupy Sacramento.”

Usually the signs they (protestors) hoist up repeatedly or loud chants they verbalize that echo can give clear messages or drop some hints on what the people want, right? Well in this case, not so much, at least for me it is not that cut-and-dry to comprehend what’s going on with “Occupy Sacramento.”

Before today, all I really knew was that the protests were related to the larger ones going on Wall Street and that the “occupy” movement was catching on in other bigger cities like Philadelphia and Chicago.

So to grasp what is going on with the demonstrations that have been taking place at Caesar Chavez Park the past few days, I did what any other logical and lazy college student would do who wants a quick answer, google it! So I did, and began reading articles. However, I realized after about 30 minutes, I gained some marginal information, but still no clear reasons for why these people were protesting.

Much of the news articles I read simply explained that protesters were arrested or had harassed news reporters. Finally though, I arrived at a few reasons like: the present state of our economy here in the United States, our health care system, and corporate America. This did help some with the clarity of what was going on downtown, but as I kept looking into more articles, the ambiguity rose again with conflicting or very vague news pieces.

So to help myself understand more of “Occupy Sacramento,” I asked my sister Sonia for her input. She actually attended most of the protests at Caesar Chavez Park since they started on Thursday last week. When I asked her what it was all about, she told me that if she had to boil it down to one main problem, it is that “people were sick of government failing them and aiding the top 1-2 percent.”

Also, my sister told me not to believe everything said on news regarding what has been going on at Caesar Chavez Park. According to her, apparently reporters from CBS were somewhat inconsiderate by implying that “hippies” were there protesting for various reasons. In addition, reporters supposedly sought out the most outspoken, extreme, and entertaining people at the rally to interview while not paying attention to those who knew what they were there for and who may have been more knowledgeable about the protest-related topics.

To gather another person’s valid opinion, (who is more familiar with the situation than I) I picked at my dad’s brain some. He said a large part of it is discovering why the economy is in such a bad state right now and how individuals’ problems relate to it. Also he mentioned he thinks that people should be patient with this process and that drastic changes will not occur over night.

Based on the information I have gathered via internet, friends, and family, I think it is safe to say the reasons for these demonstrations cannot be summed up in a few words or phrases. Although I feel I have learned more about the subject and feel like I could even carry a conversation regarding this for a good minute or two, it sure has been an effortful endeavor for it has occupied my brain sufficiently the last 48 hours.