Random Thoughts

I need to post about #OccupyOakland’s events from yesterday. But that would take a lot more mental energy than I currently have due to being out for so many hours yesterday, getting home late, watching the livestream deteriorate as things turned violent, waking up early for the first day of working at a new temp job with UPS and I think this deserves a much more nuanced analysis than what I’m seeing in written, broadcast, and grassroots citizen journalist coverage.

Earlier on Facebook I posted:

“There are agitators at #OccupyOakland. And the vast majority find them very frustrating. But as long as we're showing photos of some protesters breaking things, can we also share the photos of some protesters fixing things? Just to be you know... fair and balanced and all that jazz?”

Accompanying this is a link to the following photo (Originally posted by Susan Quinlan)

And I think that sums up a lot of my attitude without going into the 11 hours I photographed yesterday… Which I will do later. Though I can’t promise when as I’m also trying to upload and organize my photos from the event.

But the scale of the problem was revealed to me not only in Port of Oakland, but today at my UPS training for the season job as a driver helper. In the room we had a law student, recent business graduate, army reservist and veteran, retired postal worker of 27 years, laid off postal employee of 6 years, and a few others I didn’t get a chance to speak to in depth long enough to learn their backgrounds. This is for a manual labor job that starts at minimum wage, is seasonal, and only a pretty qualified pool of people was able to access. What does that mean for those who are not in the 30% of Americans who went to college?