Saturday, October 8, 2011
News Congressman John Lewis at Occupy Atlanta
Posted by Joeff Davis @joeffly on Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 11:34 AM
Congressman John Lewis visited the Occupy Atlanta rally at Woodruff Park last night approximately 45 minutes after its planning session, or General Assembly, started. Despite saying he did not want to speak, the civil rights icon was invited to address to the crowd. When the topic of allowing Lewis to speak was presented to the group, "Joe" (pictured in red) held up his arms to "block" Lewis from speaking.
"Joe" said he was against Lewis speaking because the movement is "not about one individual" and that it has been built on the idea of "no hierarchy." The crowd decided the congressman could speak after the General Assembly, but Lewis had to leave for a previous engagement. Here's a video of the exchange shot by one of the attendees:
"I support the protesters in New York and here," Lewis told CL before leaving Woodruff Park. "It is the right time and the right place to be... It is the will of the people. When I was young we did similar actions. It is grassroots democracy at its best. I think something good will come of the moment." (Here's a video of Lewis' remarks. The congressman said he wasn't disappointed he didn't get a chance to speak.)
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Comments (54)
Showing 1-50 of 54
The dude in the red tee and the beard was vaguely leader-y through that insufferable process of marginalizing John Lewis. Which then prompted a long insufferable thread on my Facebook about whether beards for progressive-minded men have had much impact since about, say, 1971 or thereabouts. Computer said no.
like
dislikeCome to think about it... I sure wouldn't want to kick-off my Abbie Hoffman years as Dude Who Marginalized John Lewis. In Atlanta.
They all need to get a grip and make some type of coherent statement. How can they expect to get support of the people if there are no clear aims. All I hear and see are college age kids who are chanting down with the American system of Capitalism and redistribution of wealth. A socialistic form of Government like in Cuba and Venezuela. If they want that, go to one of those countries. I'll help them pack.
"All I hear and see are college age kids who are chanting down with the American system of Capitalism and redistribution of wealth. A socialistic form of Government like in Cuba and Venezuela."
if that's all you see it's because you fear communism in every shadow, you fear socialists under your bed at night
i suggest medication and therapy
Oh for fcks sake, why didn't this sht take place in a closed door meeting with the actual rally/protest happening in Woodruff Park? Who organized this sht? You're fired.
I fully support this cause, but the absolutely idiotic bullsht that I just saw on that youtube clip completely confirms the mainstream media's assertions that this movement is an unorganized clusterfck. Call & response?! Are you fcking kidding me? What, is this Kindergarten?! Why the fck WOULD John Lewis have stuck around? That was just embarrassing.
And I LOOOOOVE (well, HATE, actually) that douchebag in the red shirt talking about how the movement is too big for "one person" while practically salivating at the attention he was getting, clearly power-hungry. Get it together jackoffs. John Lewis could have lent an incredible amount of credibility to the Atlanta movement. MORE COVERAGE. Do. you. get. it? (sigh)
I love the dude at the 2:20 mark wearing a trade mark Union Thug Teamster t-Shirt. That is Classy - no wonder Honorable John Lewis wanted to speak.
I am the giant who goes ballistic I the grey, I'm a James baldwin and admire rep lewis' history and character. He is a hero of mine. I was on 750am, spoke with cnn producer, and fox news yesterday and they wanted nothing to do with me. I have called this group of apathy ridden people to leave the park, but their arrogance outshines... Twitter: Occupyatl. That's me google it, i bear much responsibility for the ignorance in the park and I apologize.
Note to Occupy Atlanta: using the human microphone is fucking retarded when you are not disallowed the use of sound amplification. It's even retardeder when the human microphone is used in small enough a group where everyone is close enough to hear without repeating. Get a fucking grip.
I say give 'em a voice. Broadcast their deliberations far and wide. Broadcast it to every corner of the nation. Let it ring out loud and clear.
It hangs around the neck of the Democrats and it is a jewel that can not be removed. They encouraged it and it is theirs.
Bon appetit.
With this today OWS lost me. What a bunch of brats. And to call that hippie picnic an "assembly" is hilarious.
The call and response smacks of church followers mindlessly repeating their leaders' slogans and chants during a service.
I bet a couple food trucks showing up could clear this crowd quickly.
Had Tea Party rallies refused to let John Lewis speak....they would again be called racists...I loved one interviewer Portia Bruner who found a protester calling this group of people a bunch of marxists and socialists...That is what John Lewis and Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the left leaners want to support a bunch of Big Government movements filled with Socialists, Marxists, Communists, Unions, Class Warfare, Anti Semitism etc...
The hypocricy of these groups is shocking. If they are serious about fighting "big business" and capitalism they'd better ditch their iPhones, video cameras and social media and pretty much anything they bought at a store and didn't make or grow themselves. And they picked Woodruff park for their protest! Clueless.
"Established in the early 1970s, Woodruff Park was formerly known as Central City Park. The park was created thanks to a philanthropic gift from former Coca-Cola Company president Robert W. Woodruff, who donated the money anonymously. After two years of planning and preparation, the park opened in 1973."
Yeah, one of those evil capitalists.
Of course, if the occupiers are looking for something to do with their spare time might, I suggest a trip over to the Georgia Aquarium which is just a few blocks away.
"The Georgia Aquarium started with The Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus. Marcus wanted to present a gift to the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia, one that would encourage education and economic growth. In November of 2001, he announced his plan to build an aquarium in downtown Atlanta. He and his wife Billi donated $250 million toward the Georgia Aquarium's construction.
Damn, more evil capitalism."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post_n…
Numb nuts. At least the Atlanta nimrods are like cute puppies...for now. They have a well known supporter south of here:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/chavez-slams-horr…
"With this today OWS lost me. What a bunch of brats. And to call that hippie picnic an "assembly" is hilarious."
i know it's very confusing how similar "wall street" and "atlanta" are but i would like to point out that occupy wall street and occupy atlanta are not the same group
just a thought
The complaints of the Occupy Wall St. protesters are much more clear than the mainstream media presents. But there's no point in trying to explain them to people who buy into the republican propaganda machine.
That said, the Atlanta "movement" is clearly in disarray. They need a small group of organizers to set a *^%#@! agenda & execute that agenda at an actual rally/demonstration with a few speakers including John Lewis (if he decides that he even wants anything more to do with this clusterfck). That bearded idiot in the red shirt probably did more damage to the Atlanta movement than FOX could ever do.
Reports should be clear, this was a general assembly meeting, not the occupyatlanta. There had been no agreements as of yet that any occupation of Atlanta would occur that night. Congressman lewis is welcome and encouraged to return, to help outreach, to speak to @occupyatlanta. General Assemblies are functionally the legislative sessions of the people's occupation. No politician should expect to jump to the head of the mic at a congressional session without due process, Neither did Rep. Lewis- coming in full support of OccupyAtlanta- have those expectations.
Pfft with the silly formalities! If anyone there deserved to jump to the head of the mic and forego all due process of this freaking congressional legislative session to the general assembly it was John Lewis.
Why in the woooooooorld are you having meetings in a park? If it was for exposure or media attention, you failed by denying Mr. Lewis in such a time-wasting, convoluted manner. Do you want the process to be a complete clusterfck or does it just look like that on the youtube clip? EVERYTHING I read in multiple sources and saw on the news indicated this would be a rally. Whatever the case, there was some serious miscommunication going on. And finally, no one expecting to accomplish anything should conduct a "meeting" like that. I hope that at least became clear by the end of the "meeting."
Let's skip all the mis-informed debate about "what are your demands" and go right to the meat and potatoes of the issue -- how are you going to achieve your demands?
A bunch of hippies sitting around a drum circle downtown aren't going to change their clothes, never mind the status quo. You can't just show up and be the filth.
When's playtime over and when does struggle begin?
Mostly white faces in the crowd ... blocking a black hero from speaking. What a disgrace!
"Mostly white faces in the crowd"
still over 9000% more diverse than a teabagger rally. and i don't see a single government-provided wheelchair to boot!
"blocking a black hero from speaking."
all white people = one white guy
teabagger logic, ladies and gents
"When's playtime over and when does struggle begin?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk69e1Vcmvg
I hope this goes on and on. True colors will shine.
Look at the other photos Robert. There are plenty of people of all colors in attendance.
But to get to my point, this group in Atlanta desperately needs organization and leadership or they are dead in the water. Or worse, they could hurt the whole movement altogether. The fact that the one douchebag was able to stall what should have been an easy decision for so long speaks volumes about the lack of organization in this particular chapter.
like i said, it's a bunch of political hobbyists with objectives but no strategy. especially occupy atlanta and they also somehow think that some effective portion of the government hasn't been co-opted by elitist interests
oh well. at least this dissent arose endogenously rather than being manufactured by fox et. al. the dissent is also being manufactured too - notice the common talking point attacks, such as "crowd is all white apple rich kids" or "dirty potsmoking hippies" or "they don't have a plan"
"still over 9000% more diverse than a teabagger rally. and i don't see a single government-provided wheelchair to boot!"
Yeah those Tea Party rallies look REALLY bad compared to the Occupy Whatever rallies.
"eah those Tea Party rallies look REALLY bad compared to the Occupy Whatever rallies."
i'm glad we agree for once. people waving around "Keep GOVERNMENT out of my MEDICARE" signs are just terribly dumb.
of course i'm not middle aged+ so i don't immediately think "get a job" when i see a dude with a nose piercing or a tattoo
Neither do I. I mean there are tons of coffee shops where the pierced can work. But the Occupy Whatever people are looking a lot stupider by comparison despite your twisting of Tea Party rhetoric. At least genteel Atlantans of any political stripe would never do this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-20…
"Neither do I. I mean there are tons of coffee shops where the pierced can work. "
actually no there aren't
you can kind of tell age through opinion in this issue. most middle aged and elderly folks who know how to work computers see that most of their friends and family are employed, so everything must be fine.
most twentysomethings see wickedly high unemployment and are pissed. unemployment is ten percent, if you haven't bothered to notice. it's as high as 25% among 18-24 year olds.
you're out of touch, dave. you have no idea how hard it is to find a job in this economy, you have rose-colored glasses thinking back to your youth forty years ago - coincidentally, 1973 was the the last year workers wages increased relative to inflation.
"At least genteel Atlantans of any political stripe would never do this:"
haha the daily mail
look at this picture of trash! *orderly pile of stacked sleeping bags during the day*
at least after i can get my class warfare fix of filthy poors i can check in and see how humiliated demi moore is after her last-ditch attempt to save her marriage to ashton. somehow i think this is the level of journalistic analysis appropriate to your mindset, pete
Rarely do you see such cocksure belief in totally erroneous assumptions. My cushy staff job disappeared two years ago. I've supplemented my spotty freelance bookings with handyman work, furniture moving, apartment painting and similar just to keep a little cash flow. Believe me I KNOW what the economic situation is. The young and the recently collegiate are not the only ones thinking about a barrista gig. How's your job search going, by the way?
"haha the daily mail"
2 + 2 = 4 even when Hitler says it. In this case, 2 + 2 was a picture of an Occupy Whatever protester taking a crap on a cop car. That was the headline of the story as well but, master deflector of attention that you are, you ridicule the paper and puff on about an irrelevant pic.
Face it. Your side looks like a bunch of morons with this Occupy Stuff movement. And it's going to cling like dribbling crap to the Democrats and their allies, who encouraged it.
But don't worry. You're just an absurd Bachmann or Perry quote away from regaining some footing.
Yeah, and those Tea Party demonstrators look like geniuses with their misspelled signs denouncing taxes while occupying parks and public property created and maintained by that very tax money. Brilliant!
How dare this Occupy Protest not allow a member of CONGRESS to speak at this demonstration!!!
He was there to show SUPPORT to the cause that wants and needs SUPPORT! Duh, it is not about one person. It will not turn into the "John Lewis Occupy Atlanta Protest" He was showing SUPPORT to the 99% (the people Occupy is about...aka you and me).
They should have taken his support and love graciously. I mean it took weeks at the OWS for public figures to comment and express support.
So if Congressmen and people who directly work with our legislation are not the people who's minds Occupy supporters want to change. WHO IS???? Who's mind does this protest want to effect????
I think they were denouncing EXCESSIVE taxes, not all taxes and all public spending, but hey go with what ya got.
The guy in the red t-shirt is probably an excellent speller.
Brilliance and douchebaggery know no side. We all love when the douchebag on the other side gets the spotlight. A few months ago, you got to laugh and this weekend it's my turn.
It doesn't matter what you and I think, anyway. It's what the dumb masses walking down the road think when it's time to cast a vote. And believe me, the Occupy Whatever folks are hurting your case a lot more than the well behaved Tea Partiers are hurting mine. Bum rushing the Smithstonian, crapping on cop cars, the human microphone and snubbing the heroic John Lewis...no contest.
"Rarely do you see such cocksure belief in totally erroneous assumptions."
such as the assumption that youth unemployment doesn't exist and that there are jobs, if only those slobs would work them?
i would fuckin' love to be fully employed. best i can manage right now is about 20 hours a week
"I've supplemented my spotty freelance bookings with handyman work, furniture moving, apartment painting and similar just to keep a little cash flow."
me too man. only i don't have years of experience doing odd jobs so i get largely shut out of that market as well. i build computers here and there and if you need someone to clean your gutters pm me
"Believe me I KNOW what the economic situation is. The young and the recently collegiate are not the only ones thinking about a barrista gig."
thinking isn't the same as getting. i know plenty of people with bachelors who would love to work at starbucks, if they were hiring
"How's your job search going, by the way?"
terrible. i average about twelve promising applications a week with followups and i'm lucky to get rejection callbacks. i get more calls from telemarketers and scammers than i do from viable employers
problem is that i spent so long in school, that moderately experienced people are snapping up all the entry-level jobs in my field and i'm too overqualified for most shitty minimum wage jobs. nobody wants to hire a dude with a master's degree to mop floors, because they figure i'll be out of there soon - or wont take instruction. i get more success on my fake resume that lists fake jobs to explain the gap left when i take out my college years than i do with my real resume
"2 + 2 = 4 even when Hitler says it. In this case, 2 + 2 was a picture of an Occupy Whatever protester taking a crap on a cop car."
one guy rubbing his butt on a cop car means that everyone at OWS wants to defecate in public? at least you can handle basic arithmetic
"That was the headline of the story as well but, master deflector of attention that you are, you ridicule the paper and puff on about an irrelevant pic."
yeah, because once you take out that one mildly shocking picture you're left with meaningless fluff on a gossip tabloid
"Face it. Your side looks like a bunch of morons with this Occupy Stuff movement."
my side? just because i always rag on the right doesn't mean i support OWS. try to look beyond the false dichotomy of identity politics, if you can. i think you're so firmly entrenched in media-driven fake dialogue that you can't see beyond it
if you haven't noticed, a lot of committed leftists have been criticizing OA and OWS. some in this very thread! i don't think you've got the guts to ever say a cross word about teabaggers
"And it's going to cling like dribbling crap to the Democrats and their allies, who encouraged it."
well if OWS ever polls in the low twenties like the fox-manufactured teabaggers you can tell me i told you so. until then try to keep your political boner hidden until more than one gaggle of fat suit talking heads is hating on the filthy hippies
John Lewis was there because he thought that he might gain some political advantage.
He was betting that the protestors wouldn't remember that he voted 100% with the President on supporting the banks, financial firms and car companies. He thought that the protestors would be too forgetful, lazy or dumb to realize that he supported what they were protesting.
It sounds like he was right.
and i'm NOT saying that the cop crapper was a plant versus some random idiot, but you really should be careful extrapolating the behavior of one individual in such a politically charged protest.
an assistant editor for the American Standard admitted to being an agent provocateur in DC, getting pepper sprayed by smithsonian guards as an attempt to discredit his political opponents
http://my.firedoglake.com/cgrapski/2011/10…
spectator has since pulled the link to the original article but here is a screengrab
http://i789.photobucket.com/albums/yy178/c…
remember, there's a lot of james o'keefe hotshots out there who would love to rise to the talking head pantheon by staging ridiculous stunts to prove how evil the hippies are
sure the hippies love bongos just as much as the teahadi set love illiterate signage, and that's worth mockery. but don't be so quick to judge hundreds of people on the actions of one person
I hope you can score a job in your field, or even one you can stand. I really do.
Of course the cop car crapper doesn't really rub off on the others (sorry for that one.) It's all a matter of perception with the dumb masses, isn't it? And when did I ever say youth unemployment doesn't exist?
Believe me, MY side, which I call my side only for ease of discussion, embarrasses me daily. Bachmann, Perry, Sanctimorum...Goddess help me.
eric pfeifer = n one is 'afraid' of socialism but many reject it as another form of hierarchical corporatism, usually male dominated. The search for focus and moving away from white people of privilege chanting about ending capitalism is that it IS white people of privilege. If we have not learned that the alternative to Wall Street is NOT socialism, we've learned nothing at all, just bowed to anothe kind of oppression and loss of autonomy. There are many other routes to liberation. The old, and the tired, and the worn out systems did nothing to help people achieve their fullest measure of self sufficiency and autonomy. So please eric, move out of your narrow box and tired chants and start working with people who see things bigger and more possible than meaningless screed. Otherwise, you are part of the problem.
"The search for focus and moving away from white people of privilege chanting about ending capitalism is that it IS white people of privilege."
what are you, an idiot? did you not read the part of my post where i criticize OWS for doing nothing?
moron
OWS Group Leader Brian Phillips leads communications for the NYC General Assembly the group primarily responsible for occupying Wall Street. According to NPR, Phillips is "an ex-Marine with a bachelor's in computer science. Today he is wearing a sock on his head."
"My political goal,"Phillips says, "is to overthrow the government."
That is what this group wants and of course the forgiveness of all debt...
This is what I would call an extreme group, but the Liberal media will never call them extremeists, or racists, they are beloved by the Left Party especially Nancy Pelosi and Hollywood...
This group is extreme left leaners that is Socialists, Marxists, Communists - in fact they were selliing that literature and t-shirts down there this weekend.
“What started out as two men in a garage with ideas and passion would have been nothing more than two guys in a garage with ideas and passion had it not been for an IPO on Dec. 12, 1980, when Apple went public at $22 per share.
Big Bad Wall Street raised $101 million for Mr. Jobs to expand his ideas, create jobs and change the landscape of technology. The next time any of the Wall Street occupiers makes an iTune purchase, it can be traced back to some Big Bad Banker’s belief in Mr. Jobs and his company.”
Class dismissed.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/aimless_obama_walks_alone_OUgoMTkORRJioLl7B6ZYmN#ixzz1aPfsCk2r
I'm the guy who shot this video. From what I saw. Lewis went there with the intention of addressing the group. Lewis's colleagues told the "leadership" that he was there and wanted to offer words of encouragement. The group made him wait a long time before they even put it to vote. What's weird is if they did not want to make their meeting all about Lewis, they certainly did just that by turning him away. That is all anyone is talking about in regards to @ATLGenAssembly
Heh, I love the phrase "class dismissed" being used as a segway to some op-ed in a Rupert fcking Murdoch publication. That's some reliable stuff there teach! Whether or not class is "dismissed" I think I'll be skipping for the rest of the year.
The Post was a joke long before Murdoch bought it.
You're alright, though, blood. You've got a good sense of humor and you're usually fair. You should read the opposition sometime, though, just to see what's up. I look at the Puffington Host every day and you can imagine how I feel about them. If you only expose yourself to like minded ideas, you walk around with blinders on. I'm not a Murdoch fan either, but his pie thrower slappin' wife made me smile. And I'm gonna watch the Simpsons and South Park no matter who owns the network.
It's too bad bigal followed the excellent Apple anecdote with the irrelevant link. Here's a relevant one from a great blogger who woke up one day to find out was working for Rupie. Funniest guy on the right since PJ O'Rourke.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405…
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