In which hate is charmed and the streets are occupied by the followers of the Great Pumpkin

• Вт, 11:34: RT @LafinJack: http://www.forward.com/articles/112461/
• Вт, 13:59: Occupy Wall Street, Great Pumpkin Mashup http://www.flickr.com/photos/dprezat/6302648097/

The first link is to a remarkable story of how a man recognized a hate crime as a cry for help. I've often been told that trying to change the minds of people embedded deep in the world of racism and hurt is like banging your head against the wall, but this man helped a troubled person leave all that behind by simply being nice to the guy while he was busy trying to insult him.

The second link is to an amusing picture from the Occupy Wall Street movement. That movement's an odd thing. I got some insight into their general assembly from the Colbert Report the other night, and it seems awfully odd. Robert's Rules of Order mixed with hand signals, it almost seems like something that counselors at 4-H camp would have put together.

BTW, this article in the Nation on the Occupy Wall Street blog does an interesting job of "answering" some of the many questions:

http://www.thenation.com/article/163719/occupy-wall-street-faq

The main goal seems to be to bring people together that could later be organized into a like minded political bloc. Beyond that, you can come and talk about the Great Pumpkin. This is a little dangerous, because in the absence of some central driving political vision, the movement can be co-opted by fringe elements, and those can be demonized by the press.

To illustrate, there was a very interesting story that I watched unfold on some message boards about how the New York general assembly of OWS almost lost control because they could not come to consensus with the people playing the drums. The drummers initially refused to be limited to specific drum playing hours. Uncontrolled drumming was jeopardizing the entire occupation of Zuccotti park, because the drumming was violating noise and nuisance ordinances, and the "Man" was going to use it as a reason to kick everyone out.

Whenever the general assembly would reach consensus with the majority of drummers, some unrelated dweeb who wasn't in on the discussion would show up and start drumming, and it would all be ruined. Eventually the organized drummers had to "police" any unaffiliated drummers and force them to comply.

Original thread on OWS and the drum crisis
http://nplusonemag.com/monday-night-urgent-ows-message
OWS article on the drumming
http://occupywallst.org/article/drumming-and-occupation/
and another link on the ability of an activist with a different agenda's attempt to derail the drumming discussion:
http://www.bilerico.com/2011/10/ows_ashley_love_strikes_again.php