By Vijay Prashad
Smiles.
A mid-September sunny day in New York City draws those with the day off to go to the parks and laze along the avenues, walking by the workers on call, cleaning up after tourists, holding together a city that always seems held together by the sweat of its massive workforce and a dose of city pride. Beneath the massive Washington Arch, a woman in a wheelchair, beside other men and women in wheelchairs and other prosthetic devices, holds a sign that says, “Occupy Wheelchairs.” The Occupy Wall Street Disability Caucus is holding an assembly to proclaim its presence at Occupy, Year 2.
Behind their wheelchairs, on the Arch, is a sculpture of Wisdom (made by Stirling Calder, the father of Alexander Calder), whose hand holds a book with Ovid’s quip, Exitus Acta Probat, which can be loosely translated as “all’s well that ends well.” It is a good hopeful slogan for the Occupy festival in anticipation of S17 (September 17), the day OWS returns to the canyons of Wall Street to shut down Money.
A man tells his three-year-old child, “let’s go occupy the playground.” It is the spirit of the moment.
The Occupy Catholics have a homemade sign: “We aren’t protesting. We’re advertising Love.”
A man in a police uniform holds a sign, “To understand us watch Inside Job. A film about Corporate Greed, not 9-11.”
The Goths are by the fountain, posing for photographers, intense.
