Occupy Olympia's Tent Community

I've been following stories about the occupy movement, from Wall Street to Oakland to Olympia and everywhere in between. The news coverage, from what I've seen, has been negative. This is likely due in part to the fact that media networks need newsworthy stories. Peace isn't exactly a headline topic. Police brutality, on the other hand, sure grabs viewer attention.

Several weeks ago, Jeremiah and I found ourselves bored and curious. So we headed down to Occupy Olympia with our video camera to ask questions and get informed. I highly recommend that anyone near enough to any occupation makes an effort to do the same (no video camera necessary). We found that the majority of folks we spoke with were well educated, well informed, and well intentioned. We sensed nothing but a deep sense of love and community from Olympia's tent city, and our hopes were lifted for the people involved in the movement.

After multiple conversations, I began to realize that the mass media's portrayal of the movement and the people had given me an inaccurate sense of the cause. At least in the case of Occupy Olympia, which I feel is different from other occupations in some beautiful ways. What struck me is that it's not really a protest, but a demonstration. A protest, to me, just says "you've got it wrong, fix it." Occupy Olympia is saying, "You've got it wrong. Let us show you how to fix it and let us be involved in the process." They've got a community medicine tent, food tent, and supply tent. No one's really in charge and everyone is invited to get involved. It's a demonstration of real democracy (despite the anarchy misconception), where individual voices are heard and community thrives because of it.

We used every interview (except one which we didn't hit record for) we conducted in our video. Due to technical difficulties, more than half our original footage was lost and we were limited to the first five minutes of each interview. We did our best to never misrepresent the occupation or the people involved. Though I am clearly in favor of Occupy Olympia, I made every effort to ensure the video is unbiased and un-manipulated. Regardless, I perceive a positive lean when I watch it. I assure you, had we any negative footage to include we'd have done so. Our desire was to get informed and share information, not to promote the cause.

Give us your feedback, share your thoughts, ask your questions. We're into that sort of thing.

In Solidarity,

Kaylani