My Visit to Occupy Washington, DC

 A Marine buddy and I went to the Occupy Washington, DC event in McPherson Square today.  I had considered taking a dozen bars of soap with me to hand out, but decided on a fistful of CATO Institute versions of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution instead.  I was surprised when I got to my buddy’s place that he had a backpack full of the same all individually wrapped in sandwich bags to ward off the rain.  Great minds . . . . .  So armed with our Constitutions we headed off to confront the Occupiers. 

This sign greeted us as we walked onto McPherson Square, apparently they don’t want to pay for anything:

 There were several flags on the square but no one seemed to be bothered by this:

 

In all fairness, after we pointed it out to one of the occupiers, he did fix it. 

This is Ms. Che (my name for her) as she seemed to be the sharpest knife in the drawer.  She was manning the Information Booth and I suspect that she knew exactly what we were up to.  She was wary when I spoke to her:

This is the Library.  When I asked the proprietor if he had a copy of the Constitution he said that he thought he did.  He seemed pleased when I offered him one.  He said he would take all that I had.  When asked if he had read it, he said “only parts” of it:

That was when I had one of several verbal exchanges with an occupier.  Another man had watched the exchange at the Library and I gave him a Constitution as well.  He asked me if I had heard about the Baltimore occupiers protest against Karl Rove Monday night.  He seemed proud that they had confronted Rove.  I told the grinning man that I had heard and I was disappointed in them.  He was speechless.  I pointed out that all of us had rights but his rights didn’t trump my rights.  He looked confused.  I explained that even Karl Rove had a right to be heard, just as he assumed that the Occupy movement had a right to be heard.  I think . . . I’m not sure . . .that I saw a light come on.  He clutched his Constitution and walked off. 

This caught our eye.  My Marine buddy dubbed it the “Cosmic Burger.”  Your guess is as good as mine. 

This sign proclaimed that the Occupiers were “Emissaries of Light.” I don’t know what that means. 

 We were only there for a few hours, but I have more to tell you . . . . .tomorrow.