One Person - One Opinion

I just got back from eleven days of work related travel to Portland, Oregon. On three separate occasions, I walked a few blocks from my downtown hotel to visit the Occupy Portland protest site located opposite Portland’s City Hall in Chapman and Lownsdale Square parks. This “tent city" was made up of approximately 200-400 tents that in my opinion, contained a group of a rag tag people appearing to only be interested in anarchy and publicity. Many of them appeared to be there because they were homeless, fighting addiction, or just wanted to be a part of something. The site had a pungent odor and there were several self-crafted poster board signs littering the parks and sidewalks. The damage to the parks appeared to be inconsistent with the “peace, love, and happiness” goals of the movement.

Occupy Portland started October 6 and grew out of the nationwide anit-Wall Street movement that is occurring across America. It is my understanding that the Wall Street movement began with the premise that everyday working people were fed up with policies that protected the financial markets and were generally angry over an unfair economic system and the disappearing middle class. If Occupy Portland’s movement is going to have any impact, besides complaining about the inequities in our society, the protesters need sit down and come up with a platform of issues and an agenda to accomplish them. Their complaints cannot just be vague pleas to end injustice. They need to be part of the solution and not just part of the problem. I do not think anything will be gained from Occupy Portland’s movement and it certainly will not help the protesters resume if they are trying to get a job.

Many people think that these protests are great, but where do we go from here? I believe in the right to free speech and the ability to peacefully protest. However, this crowd in Portland is walking a tightrope of civil disobedience that is not abiding by laws and ordinances and they are being destructive to public property. Thousands of dollars in officer overtime pay, park restoration, and sanitation removal, is needed to sustain this occupation—and who is paying for this? You are the taxpayer. I think that in this tough economic time, our tax dollars could be better spent elsewhere.