INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — With growing numbers nationwide and internationally, the Occupy Wall Street movement has spread to Vero Beach and Sebastian, garnering relatively small groups of all ages seeking to wrest democracy from the corporations and return it to the people.
“My belief is that money has taken away democracy,” said Occupy Sebastian participant Tracey Wade, adding that money has replaced votes. “I’m not a lobbyist. I just want democracy back.”
Wade, who works for GE, joined 14 others who felt compelled to take part in the Occupy movement Saturday evening at the corner of US 1 and Sebastian Boulevard on the sidewalk outside Riverview Park.
Their demonstration followed Vero Beach’s, which was held Saturday morning outside the Indian River County Chamber of Commerce.
Mack and Cass Meadows, who both work, brought their sons, 13-year-old Taylor and Austin, 8, to the Occupy Vero Beach event, which drew at least 10 demonstrators.
“We brought lunch,” Cass said, when asked how long the family would stay out along 21st Street.
“It’s a tumultuous time in our country,” Mack said. “People are suffering. With the Wall Street bailouts, the rich keep getting richer. And that seems to be OK.”
“We’re one of the lucky ones,” Cass said, explaining that they are able to get by, though it is getting more difficult to do so.
Alice Omohundro, a self-employed acupuncturist and registered nurse of Sebastian, attended the northern county event. She marched against the Vietnam war when she lived in Washington, D.C.
“I wondered what had happened to the left,” Omohundro said, referring to liberals in Indian River County. “It’s nice to see something like this in Sebastian.”
At both events, the reaction from passing motorists varied.
Both elicited honking and waves. In Sebastian, many drivers gave thumbs up, while several drivers in Vero Beach gave thumbs down.
“You’re losing!” shouted one motorist who drove by on 21st Street. “I hate to tell you.
Vero Beach organizer Michael Moran said he helped plan the event to give a voice to the community.
“We are here to speak up for the 99 percent,” he said, referring to the majority of Americans who don’t control the nation’s wealth – the Top 1 percent.
Moran dressed as the character V from the movie V for Vendetta.
“It inspired me to do something against corporate networks, like Fox, because Fox misleads viewers with half truths and lies and too much hate,” Moran said.
Demonstrators took exception to political pundits’ comments that their movement is “un-American.”
“That’s just the stupidest thing I’ve heard,” Mack Meadows said, referring to what Republican GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain recently said.
“I’m highly offended by that,” Omohundro said of Cain’s comments. “I believe in social, economic justice.”
Omohundro rhetorically asked what was more American than a group of citizens peacefully gathering and exercising their First Amendment rights.
“They feel threatened,” Chelsea Orr, who runs her own business, said of the Occupy movement’s naysayers. “Look who backs the politicians – corporations.”
Lynn Schowalter, who recently retired as a school administrator in Connecticut, joined the Vero Beach event.
She said she once protested the Vietnam war at the Pentagon.
“Things start small,” she said, referring to the small attendance at the Occupy Vero Beach event. “It’s really hard to stand up when you’re the only one.”
Both Occupy groups are planning more demonstrations, though no dates have yet been set. Occupy Vero Beach has a Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/OccupyVeroBeach – and Occupy Sebastian is expected to have one soon.
Both are registered with more than 1,900 other communities around the world at Occupy Together – http://www.meetup.com/occupytogether/
