Occupy Wall Street: An Interview

It was a rainy Monday morning in late October and temperature was already starting to drop. Along with Professor Rosa our journalism class headed downtown to Zucotti Park with the mission of interviewing members of the “Occupy Wall Street” protest.

We arrived at around 9:30 AM, the small park which has become the camping area for the protesters was crowded with sleeping bags and camping tents which were all wet due to the previous night’s rain. By the time we arrived most of the protesters were still sleeping, so my classmates Joshua, Laura and me had to wonder a little bit around the park in order to find someone to interview. After a couple of minutes we ran across a middle aged woman who was conversing with a younger looking male while they were both sipping their morning cup of coffees. I asked them if they would mind answering a couple of questions to which the male rapidly refused; however, the woman gladly accepted our offer. The “occupier” was Rena Patty from Washington State. Patty had come to New York City exclusively for the protest. Rena had been protesting for a week already and she was actually not sleeping in the park; she was rather a “commuter protester”. Patty had assumed the role of peace maintainer due to her qualifications in “non-violent communication”. Aside from assisting in the community she also had some more personal reasons to be there: “I feel a sense of despair about the direction that our society is going. I’m also very concerned about our ecological well-being and the problem of violence in the world”.