Teachers visit Occupy Oakland

The occupy protests, reflecting a recent movement for more social and economic equality, have garnered the attention of people worldwide.

History teachers Jeffrey Scott and Mike Davey, however, were not satisfied with merely watching this movement from home, so recently, they went to the Occupy Oakland protest to see what was really going on.

“It’s basically a movement of people who are fed up with what they feel is a problem in our country, where corporations are reaping all the benefits, and the others are not,” Scott said. “People are saying that they’re tired of being in the 99 percent where all the work that they put in only benefits the one percent.”

Davey and Scott had initially planned on going to the Occupy San Jose protest, but they ended up at Oakland because of an incident that had occurred at Oakland around two days before.

The police had become involved and kicked out the protesters. According to Scott, when the protesters returned on later, many of their things were missing, and a former Marine had been hospitalized.

“It made us want to see what was going on,” Scott said.

The protest itself was an instructive experience, according to both Davey and Scott. Scott described the main area as “a mini tent city right in front of city hall.”

“People were happy to talk to you,” Scott said. “They were just talking about what they were going to do that day, and what the goals were for the movement that day.”

The day Scott and Davey went the protesters intended to reach out to the various communities in Oakland, making sure everyone knew what the protesters’ intentions were.

“People are there for freedom of speech, people are there for corporate greed, and people are there for reform,” Davey said. “The general theme is that people are unhappy with the distribution of wealth.”

Davey found that after visiting the protests, he was a lot more willing to believe the peaceful nature of the movement.

“I had heard all these things on the news about how it was hurting local businesses and [how it was] destructive,” Davey said. “We went there, and there was absolutely no effect on local businesses, and they are not the ones picking the fights. In fact, it’s the only movement out there that’s calling for real change.”

Both teachers said that they were only there as observers, not protesters.

“I did bring a couple signs, but we were there so we could report back to our classes about what was really going on, not what the media is saying,” Davey said.

Scott said that these occupy protests have become a worldwide movement.

“Actually going up [to Occupy Oakland] and seeing what was going on really showed me why those people were out there,” Scott said. “It influenced me to pay a lot more attention to what is going on.”