My Thoughts on Occupy Cincinnati

The issue I had was not their right to protest, but their lack of an agenda and no clear reason to protest. I stumbled onto their camp after work one day and interviewed over 8 people. Every one of them had no idea why they were down there, and even their leader provided no clear explanation of why they were occupying the space, and proceeded to get very aggitated when I tried to get her to narrow her focus. Two people in particular were guarding the donation box, but when asked what the donations were for, or why they decided to join the movement, neither of them had an answer.

In my opinion, many of the people seemed to join the movement because they wanted to say they were part of something. I joined protests in college, but only because they were on my way to one of my classes. I really didn't know specifically the reason I was protesting. It was just fun to hold a sign, in a group, for a couple of blocks, and tell my friends I was involved later in the day.  I remember one such protest where the signs said, "I have sex to cum, not to conceive."  Who wouldn't want to join that protest?

Many of the members wore their citations they received from Cincinnati police around their necks as a proud trophy of their deviance and many of the people had been on-site for days. How can they afford the time? Will they become part of the social system funded by the system they are protesting?I am all for the people's rights to assemble, but get a permit, have an agenda, and have a clear focus of what you are trying to change. Go through the proper channels to obtain the proper facilities to accomodate your assembly, such as sanitation.  Don't use downtown Cincinnati as your restroom because you feel like you have the right to protest.