So, How threatening are 84 year old “Activists”?
Posted: November 16, 2011 Filed under: #Occupy and We are the 99 percent! | Tags: Occupy Seattle 32 Comments
Every time I look in the mirror or try on an old pair of jeans or check my crown for newly sprouted grey hairs, I try to recite the poem ‘Warning, When I Am an Old Woman, I Shall Wear Purple’ . I probably should just make a copy of it and paste it on my vanity mirror. It’s hard to stay focused when your hips start to take up entire chair seats.
I’ve done my share of protests. I’ve done them with now Dr. Daughter strapped to my chest in a baby carrier and with same daughter pushed across the streets around the Nebraska State Capitol in a baby carrier. I ran for state office when baby daughter was still in Montessori pre-school. (She gets her B.S. in Finance from LSU in May.) Dr. Daughter was in utero when I interviewed Maya Angelou and when I was out at the Rose and Crown with Kate Millet and Betty Friedan talking about rumors of holding an annual International Women’s Day. Whenever I get down, I start singing “we will never give up, we will never give up, until justice is ours” which is my life’s theme song after I learned it from from Kristen Lems in the early 80s. (I learned this with Dr. Daughter in utero and most of my friends hoping that I wasn’t going to give birth in the middle of being the executive director of an activists’ conference). One of these days I will transfer some of this off of a VHS tape to digital and share it with you. People–including my children–can attest to its existence, however. I fought and worked like crazy for the ERA when I was in graduate school getting my first masters degree. I go through periods where I can still find the strength to protest and other times when I just can’t believe we could be regressing so quickly. These days, I am highly discouraged.
I would just like to bow deeply and say “I’m not worthy” to Dorli T. Rainey.
Dorli T. Rainey described herself as “an old lady in combat boots” in a Wednesday interview with The Associated Press and said she’s a former school teacher. A Seattle police spokesman did not discuss her specifically, instead referring to a statement saying demonstrators sprayed were refusing a police order to disperse.
The department was working with Mayor Mike McGinn’s office Wednesday and a statement on the Tuesday night protest was expected later in the afternoon. Update: McGinn’s statement can be read here.
Rainey in 2007 (seattlepi.com file)
Rainey’s time in the 2009 mayoral race was brief, and Rainey told the AP she quit because she was too old. On Tuesday night, Rainey was on a bus when she heard helicopters and thought she should show her solidarity with New York, where protesters had rallied for Wall Street reform.
Rainey was near Fifth Avenue and Pine Street when she was pepper-sprayed Wednesday night – the most chaotic night of Occupy Seattle protests. An officer using a public-address system told demonstrators to leave.
“Pepper spray was deployed only against subjects who were either refusing a lawful order to disperse or engaging in assaultive behavior toward officers,” department spokesman Jeff Kappel said the earlier statement.
Rainey has been a longtime activist, and wrote several letters to the editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer print edition.
In April 2005 she called for Experience Music Project, which she called an “ugly monster,” to be imploded like the Kingdome. In January 2007, she wrote that there were “interesting parallels between what happened in 1944-45 in Germany and what is happening today in the United States.” She complained of former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels’ influence on Seattle Public Schools and opposed the tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
In June 2007, Rainey was outside the Westin Hotel in Seattle protesting a visit by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. In November of that year, she wrote in a letter of an “eerie similarity” between a government crackdown on protestors in Pakistan and a crackdown by Olympia Police Department and others “on peaceful and unarmed protesters at the Port of Olympia.”
Ms. Rainey was pepper sprayed in Seattle along with a 19 year old pregnant woman and a priest. I would certainly like to know how any of them threatened the riot police.
The Seattle mayor Mike McGinn has apologized and asked for a police review.
McGinn said in a Wednesday afternoon statement that he had spoken with Rainey, and had also directed police leadership to review the incident.
“To those engaged in peaceful protest, I am sorry that you were pepper sprayed,” he said. “I also called in Seattle Police Chief John Diaz and the command staff to review the actions of last night. They agreed that this was not their preferred outcome.”
The mayor said police officers are facing difficult circumstances trying to maintain order the many Occupy protests throughout the city. He said police are developing procedures to make sure there are enough commanders on the scene at future protests.
McGinn referenced the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle, at which there were mass arrests, a nighttime curfew in parts of the city and the deployment of National Guard troops to maintain order, as well as 2001 riot during Mardi Gras celebrations that left a young man dead.
“In both instances insufficient attention and preparation led to severe public safety issues,” McGinn said.
McGinn said “tensions appear to be getting higher” as the local Occupy movement stretches into its sixth week.
The police response to these protest really worries me. Oh, and who would do such an inhumane thing as this?
Publicola reported that a short time after the pepper spray was fired, the protesters were lectured by a man in a suit who described himself as a “professional investor.” He told a group of protesters, including a young woman who said she has a job at Safeway but is underemployed, “I’m in the 1 percent; I’m not like you.”
The man also asked the woman, “Who is John Galt?” That question is the first line of Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged,” and the phrase is commonly used by devotees of the book to signal their allegiance to its free-market ideology.
The Publicola report continued, “A young man wearing a black ’99 Percent’ shirt responded: ‘Go take your tie somewhere else.’”
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Sky Dancing 
Dorli Rainey is a civic treasure! The Seattle authorities should be very ashamed.
I just love the photo of her smiling. She looks like such a nice person.
Gorgeous lady. I agree she looks like a really sweet person.
She is great, she is the American spirit, when faced with corruption and power given to corporations via ‘person status’, some people will speak up. I hope this dear lady is alright and shame on the person that sprayed her…no one will believe she is a terrorist.
How coincidental that President Obama is Australia and Joe ‘hide the women witnesses’ Biden is lost in space, while the coordinated crack down goes down on Occupy Wall Street movement. ME thinks it has to do with the movement saying they weren’t going to support a candidate for president….then whala the raids begin.
Check this out. It looks like the propaganda squad is going to try to pin the terrorist label on the Occupy Movement.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1111/An_Occupy_shooter.html
Well so far it’s only Ben Smith and he’s well known as a hack. I sure hope that meme doesn’t catch on though. It would probably gain occupy too many allies in the tea party 🙂
It was reported by ABC evening news. That’s where Ben got it.
memeorandum’s links read like a litany of mcarthyism … and i don’t mean silly love songs. The right wing noise machine is really trying their best to label every one … pedophiles, tons of needles in ny … it so reminds me of the stories I saw on tv as a kid about all the vietnam war protestors.
That story about needles is kind of odd in that, even if true, they did have a medical tent there with certified personnel. So what if there were needles?
Exactly. If there’s a public gathering, you’re going to attract good people and then some predators to just take advantage of the situation and there’s usually reasonable explanations for things. This is just propaganda. I guess that’s partly because it’s not ‘organized’. BUt if it were organized, they’d be blaming labor, or teachers, or the DNC or the Obama campaign. They just put out whatever narrative grabs headlines and supports their corporate press status.
On the other hand there’s this, where the head of the UT college republicans thinks assassinating Obama is “tempting”.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/texas-college-gop-leader-obama-assassination-tempting/
Dak, tonight I was listening to some loud mouth conservative talk radio guy, he sounded a bit like Rob Reiner, only louder and way too damn offensive. (I think it was Michael Savage…) I actually heard him scream about the Occupy Oakland, and that the non-mayor should have called out the national guard. (Non-mayor was a much nicer term than what he used…what he said had something to do with a worthless woman of Chinese ancestry.) Anyway, the national guard? WTF, the Occupiers have really gotten under the skins of the right wing nut cases.
Great post, I love hearing about your stories of protest!
I’ve got to get that VHS tape turned to digital and post it some day. I watched it a few years back. There’s a great bit with Maya Angelou and all kinds of great cuts from some other really well known feminists. It’s hard to believe that was nearly 30 years ago now.
I bow to you for your activist past! You truly have “street cred”!
I remember we converged down in Oklahoma City one day for a big massive protest to try to get them to okay the ERA. I worked on Oklahoma and Missouri at the time. That protest was huge. Women came from all over the middle of the country to try to get Oklahoma to say yes. There were no arrests or anything. I think by that time the police had learn what happened when they treated protestors badly. After the stonewall riots and Kent state they started doing things differently. I guess they must of thought we weren’t threatening. I did a lot of civil rights marches at that time and no one ever got arrested. Have done some protests down here too. The police and the mayor are really tolerant of the Occupy movement camping out in the park across from city hall. I bet that changes when they have to put the mardi gras stands up, however. The usually find a way of rounding every one up and putting them some place where they can’t be seen by tourists. The police down here figure that these kinds of things are bound to attract homeless people with their issues (many mentally ill) and also criminals looking to take advantage of groups of people. Since we have had a huge problem with homeless tent cities since Katrina, the police now have a small division that patrols them to keep the inhabitants safe while the missions and homeless programs try to work with them. People go down to the area and bring food daily and coats too. For some reason, New Orleans just doesn’t get worked up about marches and things. So, while I have had my mail read back then, I never got arrested or anything. All the protests I’ve ever participated in have always been peaceful including the last ones I was involved with to keep Big Charity open and to protest the crime and inability of the police to do their job.
okay, I guess the mayor’s joining the homeland security pogrom, just picked this up on the twitter.
Jesse Jackson stops by Occupy Nola to provide support as eviction hints get stronger
http://thelensnola.org/2011/11/17/jesse-jackson-stops-by-occupy-nola-to-provide-support-as-eviction-hints-get-stronger/
Former: Seattle Police Chief: Police Forces ‘Haven’t Learned From Our Mistakes’
http://www.thenation.com/blog/164640/former-seattle-police-chief-police-forces-havent-learned-our-mistakes
http://www.thenation.com/article/164501/paramilitary-policing-seattle-occupy-wall-street
Oh, just a mention for any of you that care. The ads are not from us. They are from wordpress. They must need money at the moment. They probably will go away eventually but I can’t control them. I wrote and asked and was told they occasionally do that when they need the cash to keep up their free services.
niterz!!
What a wonderful lady! Go Rainey!
And I’m starting early on the purple project. I was in Joshua Tree National Park last weekend and found a great super-purple t-shirt. Wore it today. My first Purple Thing.
oh MY!! What a great National Park!! I was there 2 1/2 years ago in a tent. It was February and the humming birds were working some bushes near our tent.
All the bad press that the Occupy groups are getting — reminds me of the Vietnam protest era. Back then students were the enemy — lots of bumper stickers — US love it or leave it. Kent State — I heard remarks by the right wing that the Nat Guard should have killed more students. (dirty hippies)
30 years ago the text books never used “she” only he — the female did not exist. Times have changed — technology has changed.
I’m so pissed that this new violence — random pepper spraying — is spreading to Seattle. But I’m not surprised — the cops in the photos look like a modern day Gestapo. Their job isn’t to server and protect — unless you happen to be one of the 1%.
I’m hoping that the dingbag governor is gone next year. She is no democrat — of course the Democrat party is dead in WA state (it is owned by 0bowma — thus it is the 0bamcrat party).
Does it surprise any of us the Homeland Security — is being used against peaceful protesters — and in support of the 1%?
Speaking of Homeland security — anyone see the old photo of Indians holding rifles — with the title “Homeland Security 1492”? We now have a shot glass to add to our shot glass collection — with the image and words. Too bad the Indians couldn’t keep a tighter control on European Immigration way back in 1492.
I love Joshua Tree. Anza-Borrego a bit to the south is just as good, if you ever get down that way. It’s one of the few places that allows open camping (within 50 ft of dirt roads, if I remember right).
“Homeland Security 1492.” Too true.
I’m up way past my bedtime but I caught the piece on Dorli Rainey. Amazing. And from what I understand when she finally made her way onto a bus to go home and told passengers what had happened, the bus erupted with the chant:
When you screw with us, we multiply.
Now that’s something to go to bed on! What a bunch of dopes attacking an 84 year old, a pregnant woman and a priest. And kudos to the Army vet who protected Rainey and prevented her from getting trampled in the crowd.
Tomorrow should be interesting. The Far Right is going absolutely insane.
Btw, I took a spin on Jenny Joseph’s Purple poem a number of years ago. Starts off like this:
“When I am old I shall not wear purple. I shall race down the street wearing nothing at all. Hair loose and flying, I shall wiggle and shimmy, then skip the tracks along High Street and Broad.”
I had a great time with the piece.
That’s great!!!
Dr. Cornel West at Occupy Seattle:
Interview with Miss Dorli:
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com//scarce/occupy-seattle-octogenarian-activist-dorli-
Hello, John Galt here. As in, the one referenced in this article. First of all, I would like to point out that the kid who originally wrote this article approached me very nicely and politely when he asked for my name and then did your basic hatchet job on me and for what? I wear my hair slicked back because I figured out a few years ago I can go three months without getting a haircut. The tie I was wearing I bought eight years ago on sale just before I met a prospective client. At the time, it was very close to my last twenty dollars. I am glad someone was able to make something for such a low price of such high quality that it can be ridiculed as elitist nearly a decade later. I am still far from wealthy today.
I am 36 years old and work my ass off every day. I work by myself and for myself, asking nothing of anyone beyond listening to my point of view, considering it and investing in it if they agree that I am operating on the right principles. Those who have agreed with me in principle have primarily profited. Those who have not have gone to do other things with their money. I have neither picked their pockets nor broken their legs and they have done the same for me.
And, somehow, I have become the bad guy. When I first started working in the markets a decade and a half ago, one of the most popular books in finance was, \”The Millionaire Next Door.\” it was based on interviews with hundreds of millionaires in this country and an excellent distillation of the concepts undelying their success. Nearly universally, they were self-made people who picked a business they enjoyed, worked hard at it and saved their money. This book is essentially a \”how to\” on becoming wealthy in a free market. That is a wonderful thing to see become popular.
Today, that attitude of curiosity has been replaced. It has been replaced with the wickedness of envy. Admiration for and curiosity about success has been replaced by hatred of the good for being the good. Pick your side.
I have a phd in financial economics and most every one in my family is a millionaire. Believe me, I know the difference between making legitimate income from commerce and collecting fees and income for gambling, creation of moral hazard, dumb luck, inheritance, and riding and creating speculative bubbles. I suggest you read up on the Self Attribution fallacy and get back to me. Your success is most likely an artifact from having markets twisted to benefit your bosses and cognitive illusion. No one begrudges any one that makes a million each honest dollar at a time. It’s not envy. It’s disgust from watching cheaters prosper. I could easily be your boss. There’s no amount of money in the world that would make me go back to watching people cheat and get bailed out by politicians for making horrible, costly decisions ever again. I don’t envy you your money. I pity you your cognitive illusion.
Right on!!
Here. Read this and start freeing yourself.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/30/daniel-kahneman-cognitive-illusion-extract
Daniel Kahneman: How cognitive illusions blind us to reason
Why do Wall Street traders have such faith in their powers of prediction, when their success is largely down to chance? Daniel Kahneman explains how cognitive illusions skew our thinking
Hilarious. Your first mistake is thinking you could be my boss. No one can be my boss. I have never held a job for more than six months. I looked at myself in the mirror yesterday and fired myself in the spot. Happens alot. Of course, I turned around and hired myself back because, hey, I have a lot of good qualities. but I never have and never will ask for the unearned; not from myself and not from anyone else.