As you may know, a toned down version of the Wall Street protests have finally hit Oklahoma City. It's called Occupy OKC and the demonstration if taking place at Kerr Park in Downtown. From NewsOK.com:
Jay Trenary, a Guthrie attorney and one of the movement's organizers, said he had no problem with the spontaneous demonstration...
The movement, modeled after and in support of Occupy Wall Street, is designed to raise awareness and bring people together to discuss problems and potential solutions, Trenary said. The group has no stated goals or plan of action.
“I'm not concerned by the fact that we don't have a single articulated mission statement for the group. I think that's what we're working on right now,” he said. “What we're trying to do is practice the democracy that we all say we love.”
Trenary compared the group's model, which is designed to reach consensus through assemblies of its participants, to the original Constitutional Convention.
“They had no real plan either, other than we want the place to be better than it is,” he said. “It took them a long time to formulate exactly what the plan of action was.”
First of all, I'm not that sure about the whole "Occupy Wall Street" thing. It reminds me of a less structured, liberal version of the Tea Party. The only real difference I see between the two groups — other than their polar opposite political views — is that the Tea Party had the backing of a biased cable television news network to help communicate their message, and in the process, give them more validity. Other than that, both groups seem to have impractical, unclear and fundamentally flawed viewpoints on the roles of government and capitalism and what must be done to fix them.
They are also both seemingly led by fringed wackos with questionable character. For example, Jay Trenary, one of the organizers of the Occupy OKC demonstrations, was recently charged with domestic assault and battery. His mug shot even made OK Jailbirds. Check it out:
Yeah, if you want your local political movement to be taken seriously, here are a couple of tips:
1. Come up with some sort of platform or political message. Even if it's bizarre and wacko, at least the media can convey and report your message.
2. Do not designate a guy charged with domestic assault and battery to be your groups official-unofficial organizer and media spokesperson.
Call me crazy, but maybe it's time for Jay Trenary to take a less visible role in Occupy OKC. For one, we don't want the protests to become violent. And two, regardless of their political philosophy, most people don't like to be led by individuals who are facing a trial for domestic assault and battery.
On that point, I guess we should mention that Jay plead "Not Guilty" to the charges. Then again, the guy is a defense attorney, so what should you expect? Also, we really don't know the circumstances behind the charges. The case documents (here's the summary) are not available on OSCN.net and we're too lazy to drive to Guthrie to view them. Did he wear a Miller High Life shirt and go after his wife, or did he get really drunk and punch a clown at a birthday party?
Anyway, when we find out more we'll let you know. And hopefully Occupy OKC finds a less volatile spokesperson. I nominate this guy:
