The People’s Movement Comes to Roanoke

There’s something happening here What it is ain’t exactly clear…

A thousand people in the street,  singing songs and carrying signs – Buffalo Springfield

The phenomenon that is Occupy Wall Street has now come to Roanoke VA. More than 120 people attended the second organizational meeting today for Occupy Roanoke VA (www.occupyroanoke.org). The group is one of 200 or so that have sprung up following the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York City. Occupy Roanoke, like the other allied groups, is adamant about one thing. They do not want to be identified by or controlled by any one political party or viewpoint, unlike the Tea Party which essentially has become just another arm of the right wing of the Republican Party and its corporate masters.

Occupy Roanoke states that the mission of the group is “to bring attention locally and worldwide to the greed, corruption, and loss of rights in America, to rightfully put back WE THE PEOPLE back into the US Constitution.” The group at today’s meeting was a fairly diverse one, with participants representing all ages and backgrounds. (I personally felt there was not enough representation from Roanoke’s minority population, a fact that was recognized by other persons in attendance and which they promised to try to correct.)

Occupy Roanoke will hold a demonstration on October 15 in Elmwood Park in Roanoke, with subsequent marches through the downtown. From what I heard today, the video below by Sen. Bernie Sanders pretty well covers the grievances of the Occupy movement.