Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon to find people sleeping on park benches at night in Washington, D.C.
Fortunately, I found something new on my latest night-time stroll through the nation’s capital last week: people sleeping on benches for a good reason.
These urban-outfitted hobos are the activists — or occupists — of Occupy D.C.
My first experience with any Occupy organization was a year before the now-famous movement as the state Legislature was preparing its plans to fund the state and higher education before the last two legislative sessions.
When boiled down, their demands were simple: Stop cutting education.
Though the group proved to be better organizers and collaborators than our own Student Government when voicing displeasure at Gov. Bobby Jindal’s priorities, I found its arguments somewhat simplistic, largely unpractical and born primarily out of anger.
So when the occupiers of Wall Street came to the forefront of national attention with a march on the Brooklyn Bridge, I was again guilty of writing them off as the same angry kids protesting for the sake of protesting with gripes, not goals, and too disjointed to shake the establishment.
It appears I may be dead wrong.
The Occupy “movement” has spread to more than 900 cities and occupies a respectable hole in mainstream media’s daily output.
But it was going to take more than solidarity to win my heart.
So, during fall break, I set my sights on one of the two occupied territories of the capital: McPhearson Square in the financial district of the Capitol.
I found a lot of what I expected there — dirty idealists launching their leftist rants as they lay under an open sky beside the cardboard “crap castle” containing their waste.
Their primary enemy is what they see as monstrous corporations fueled by greed that oozes into our electoral system, bureaucracies and pretty much every identifiable facet of government.
I understand the sentiment, but argued anger should be directed at the politicians who bend over to accept funding and corporate influence.
I find it difficult to blame a corporation for greed. Their primary purpose is to beat competition and make as much money as possible.
Corporations are the enablers of improper influence and corruption, but the politicians are the ones who are elected into office and should be where the ultimate standards are held.
Aiming disdain primarily toward corporations is noble but ultimately fruitless.
The occupists and I disagreed on this, but something more striking came to my attention from the disagreement.
I asked them what comparisons they thought could be appropriately made with their movement and what was the lasting impression they hoped to leave.
More times than not, comparisons to Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the Egyptian revolution, were drawn. But in reality, they are not seeking revolution, but rather awakening a sense of national empathy.
It was then the movement occupied my heart as they seek to leave a lasting sense that there is a national problem with haves and have-nots in this country.
This gap is evidenced by reports that the top 1 percent of Americans carry more combined worth than the bottom 150 million Americans and the top 1 percent of Americans have more wealth than the lower 90 percent.
Why isn’t this a hot-button issue, especially as candidates like Herman Cain introduce nauseating policies such as the 9-9-9 plan that completely disregards the nation’s needy?
I’m not one to compliment the Tea Party, but they have left a lasting impression in the unholy fear raised toward the national debt.
I won’t drag myself into a debate over how dangerous the national debt is, but it is undeniable the Tea Party has been instrumental in bringing such conversation to the nation’s attention. I should also note they have taken that conversation and tried their best to drive the country off a cliff for political gain.
I’m not sure if the occupists can crack the establishment and summon the political influence now enjoyed by the Tea Party, but perhaps as the country selects the next president, the Occupy movement can spark a growing consciousness of the nation’s inequality and a national need for empathy.
 
Xerxes A. Wilson is a 22-year-old mass communication senior from Lucedale, Miss. Follow him on Twitter @Ber_Xerxes.
 
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Contact Xerxes A. Wilson at [email protected]