Week 3 Theme: Scene-Setting and Dialogue

As the sun shot through the sunroof, instantly warming me, I was exstatic to be going to the lake. Not only did I have this picturesque California day off from work, but I was spending it catching up with my friend, Erica. I picked her up and we drove toward the lake to begin the hunt for a parking spot. With no luck finding a spot around the lake, we decided to check out the parking situation around the perminiters of a nearby park.

As we drive by I see two or three dozen tents set up in the actual park. There are a handful of people gathered by the entrance, holding up signs and being interviewed by a local news crew. Puzzled by the amount of campers in this tiny park, I ask “What’s with all of these campers Erica? Is the park normally filled up like this?”

“No, these people moved here a few weeks ago” she reported. Erica only lives a few blocks away from the lake.

“Moved here? From where?”

“They moved here from the one of the parks downtown, by the 12^th Street B.A.R.T station. They are protestors of the Occupy Movement”, she explained.

“Is it safe to park here then?” I ask, pulling into a spot with a non-colored curb.

“Yeah they’re not violent. They proved that the other night” , she said as she closed the car door.

I lock the car up, feeling a little uneasy about abandoning it by this makeshift campsite. “What happened the other night?” I ask as we walk pass the protestors.

“The other night the city of Oakland tried to evict them. They were given a letter of some sort, saying that they needed to set up somewhere else, because of sanitary issues. When they didn’t leave the police tried a number of controversial tacticts to get them to move. Did you really not hear about this?”

“I really didn’t. I can’t believe I missed all of this happening in our city!”

“Yeah, it was all over the news. The police tear gassed the protestors and they even used a sound cannon on them, which has caused a lot of controversy.”

“I believe it! Are there less people involved in the movement now?”

“There are less people camping downtown, but not less involved in the movement. If anything, after hearing about how the police handled the situation, more people have become involved. Some people are occupying other parks but most sleep indoors and show up for protests. They shut the port down a few nights ago”.

“Why would they want to shut down the port?” I asked.

“I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I know that they got a lot of national coverage over the success of the shut down. The movement wants to get the government’s attention by non-violently occupying public places. Shutting down the port seems a little extreme though.”

“All this going on in my back yard and I didn’t know it.”

“After this walk, I say we go to Sears, because you definitely need a television.”