OccupyNatGatDispatch:TheBankSleep-in

[Huey P. Long]

OccupyNatGatDispatch:TheBankSleep-in
Tue, 07/03/2012 - 14:09
By John Dennehy

Philadelphia, PA – After arriving by bus from New York late Sunday morning, I found the National Gathering in Franklin Square. The crowd was smaller than expected: a few hundred people sat in thematic clusters, hiding from the heat in the shade and wrapping up the morning discussions. In the afternoon I joined a march with All in the Red but the highlight, by far, of my first day was going to sleep.

Around 10pm a group of nine of us left the main group that had gathered at the Quaker house parking lot in search of an appropriate bank to sleep in front of. Along the way we picked up another occupier and the ten of us found a PNC bank at Walnut and 9th Street and set up camp. While we began to lay out our yoga mats and sleeping bags, one of the group, who had split off in search of nearby materials we could scavenge, announced he had found a dumpster full of cardboard boxes and even couches and chairs. A team went out to pick up whatever we could use. Once our cardboard beds were made we turned our energy into making signs about our protest; my favorite was a play on the bank’s initials and read ‘People Not Corporations’ on the side of the bank, hanging above our couch. While we were still setting up, a taxi stopped and offered us a ride.

“No we’re sleeping here,” we told him.

“Occupy?” he asked with a heavy accent.

“Yeah,” we told him.

He gave us a big smile and beeped his horn.





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http://occupiedstories.com/the-bank-sleep-in-at-national-gathering.html