Joint Meeting on Occupy Eugene, DNA with City Club

Summary by David Mandelblatt:

So… we estimate at least 400 people were in attendance.  Very exciting.  Little media coverage, if any-- "competition" with other stories, such as the UO president's firing and the Affordable Housing decision at City Council.  Maybe later.  At any rate, that's a remarkable number of people to come to a downtown meeting… great exposure for Downtown!  Seemed like a lot f folks were buying food and drinks, so it was probably a pretty good Monday night for Cozmic.

My take on the substance of the meeting was that it was pretty even-handed.  Not much controversy about economic inequity in the country today; both "establishment" and Occupy folks seemed to agree on that point.  A lot of discussion about what to do-- range from traditional efforts like voting, voter registration, participating in the political process to alternative tactics of self-sufficiency and looking out for each other.  Concern about homelessness was expressed, especially by Occupy folks-- they seem more pragmatic than idealistic, in general, although there was one audience member who expressed the predictable call for revolution.  That didn't seem to gain any traction, either from the crowd or the on-stage participants.  Jean Tate, in particular, said bluntly that she doesn't "want to go there."

It felt much more like a dialog, or discussion, than some events I remember from the 60's and 70's-- I was really pleased to see that.  What comes next?  I think they are interested in having people participate on issues and in ways that are comfortable.  This would be an interesting conversation for us to have, although we need to tread carefully about political involvement as an organization.

I'd be very glad to hear from folks who were there-- or who have spoken with people who were there-- to learn other perspectives about the meeting.