Spent the night at Occupy Fort Wayne

Over the past week the nights have been wet, rainy and miserable, but I really had no excuse to avoid spending the night at Occupy Fort Wayne yesterday because the weather was about as good as one could expect this time of year. Turns out I showed up the first night "authorities" shut off both the electricity and running water. Occupiers took it in with good cheer. They've been hanging out at a pavilion in Headwaters Park near the bus station. It's kind of out of the way as far as visibility goes, and if the "authorities" want to push the protest out into a more visible area, they did the right thing by removing the only logistical advantages the park had to offer.

But anyway, we spent the night, mostly in the dark but in superb weather ... I was really surprised at how resilient the movement here in Fort Wayne is. There was on average a half dozen people awake at any given moment I was there, and who knows how many were sleeping in the tents -- I got there late at night and left at five in the morning. The demographic tended to be younger than the people who showed up at the rally, mostly college-aged kids, but then kids have more energy and better health to do that kind of thing. Still, these weren't a bunch of flakey slackers. I was pretty impressed at their overall knowledge of politics and monetary issues. All over the country police and local officials are under what I can only assume is tremendous pressure to shut things down. I pray they don't buckle under the pressure. These kids are resilient, caring people who are fighting for their children's future. God bless them all.