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Interlude III

End Part 3
Part 4 begins on next page...
©2014

 

U.S. Bill: Did you see this? A man comes every month to see how much your light bulbs use.
-The Specials (2000)

         The Occupy Wall Street protests, in the fall of 2011, got the attention of most of the country, and the support – at least verbally – of many people.  It seemed difficult to define exactly what the protesters hoped to gain.  However, bystanders who were still feeling the effects of the recession themselves often found that they could not easily dismiss this show of frustration over corporate greed and the country’s prioritization of corporate interests.
         The Occupy encampment in Providence, R.I. hung on for some weeks into 2012 and it might have been the last one to disband.  It did not seem as though the city fought with those protestors much.  They were in kind of a fenced-off area, they did not appear to be causing any hazards, and the city mostly let them be.  The City of Providence, after the first month, also reported spending less than ten thousand dollars on policing and cleaning up after the encampment, whereas other cities were reporting costs in the millions.
         Actually, I believe this is how the cities eventually turned the tide of public sentiment -- if not against the movement itself, then at least against the physical presence of the protests: by informing taxpayers that the protests were costing them money.  It appears to have been an effective tactic – more so than trying to discredit Occupy’s message or portraying them as bad in some way.  And so the Occupy movement ended… or maybe it will come back in some other incarnation?

To our readers: This wraps up Part 3 of the story. We start Part 4 on Monday! You might have noticed from various quotes in Georgia's blog that we(@SeeDarkly) are fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We've also been long time fans of James Gunn (today's quote is from one of his previous films.) So we'll be out to see Guardians of the Galaxy this weekend! If you see it too, feel free to comment here!(Just don't spoil it for anyone, okay?)
Thank you so much for getting this far into the story and for all the positive responses we've gotten! We'll see you Monday!