New York City

The first draft of this letter (for the Romanian magazine Decât o Revistă) was written on November 14, 2011, one day before New York City's Occupy Wall Street encampment was raided. The second draft was finalized on November 22 while I was traveling in Nicaragua. The letter was translated into Romanian and publishd in January. To see how it appeared in the magazine (with accompanying photos by Ahmet Sibdial Sau), click here.

Danny Goldfield's image of Basim Erzouki, representing Iraq, was chosen for Life magazine's cover in June, 2006.

Eve Ensler, big supporter of Occupy Wall Street, accepted the invitation of an OWS occupier to participate in a dicsussion group (October 16) about how to make the OWS movement more inclusive of women and other traditionally marginalized people.

On October 18, Reverend Billy Talen and the Church of Earthalujah (formerly the Church of Stop Shopping) paid yet another visit to Occupy Wall Street in New York City. In the video below, they entertain the crowd with a very catchy tune. The lyrics of their song, "We are the 99%," are adapted from the preamble of the Declaration of Occupy Wall Street.

On October 18, 2011, the Reverend Jesse Jackson made another appearance at Occupy Wall Street in lower Manhattan. The night before, the New York City Police Department attempted to dismantle the medical tent in Liberty Park (a.k.a. Zuccotti Park) on the premise that tents are not allowed in the park. OWS medical assistants, however, contend the tent is merely used for privacy in treating the ill, and that nobody sleeps in the tent. When police swooped in, Rev. Jackson quickly linked arms with fellow occupiers to prevent the removal of the medical tent.

Sunday, October 16, 2011, was a spiritual day for me at Occupy Wall Street. I began the day at the famous Community Church of New York, where Unitarian Universalist minister Bruce Southworth delivered his sermon, "Excellence!" using the Occupy worldwide movements as as fulcrum. What's happening down at OWS, he said, is an explosion of morals. (That's a good thing!)

October 15 saw an explosion of sympathetic Occupy Wall Street marches and occupations in 1,500 cities around the world (and on all seven continents - see Occupy Antarctica here).

I barely slept a wink last night, so pre-occupied was I about the potential for violent clashes at Liberty Plaza, the epicenter of the Occupy Wall Street movement. All day yesterday and through the night, occupiers prepared for a potential forced eviction from their newly established community, as suggested by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In this video, an example of Working Group reports, which are delivered at the General Assembly meetings of the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in New York City, is delivered. Each working group of OWS reports on their corresponding committee meetings and actions. This video was taken on October 13, 2011. (To see how a GA meeting operates, click here).