“Well, why don’t we go?” exclaimed one of the women in my book group.
We had been agonizing over the lack of older folks shown at the variety of Occupy Wall Street demonstrations around the country.
So on Oct. 8, four of us headed down to the Occupy Denver rally. The rain pelted down almost like hail, the wind lifted all but the most securely tied hats, and even the young demonstrators shivered in their ponchos. I was hard pressed to find many “oldies” like us.
Yet, above the storm, Mike Shay from Wyoming was easy to spot. At 6-foot-5, sporting a bright yellow parka, he towered over others at the top of the Capitol steps. Mike, 60, a former newspaperman, laughed at my efforts to take notes by hand in the freezing weather. “Just like the old days,” he said.
Originally from Colorado, he and his wife, Chris (55 and still working), had come from Wyoming to protest the burgeoning inequities that may prevent their two grown children from getting jobs.
“This is different from marches in the past,” Mike said thoughtfully while scanning the crowd. “More leaderless; more organic.” He is not sure what form the movement will or should take, but he feels it must speak to this new generation.
The following Saturday, the “oldies,” the middle class and the middle-aged were easy to find. People over the age of 35 appeared to make up at least 50 percent of the estimated 2,000 attendees.
Parents with toddlers in strollers abounded. So did grandparents with their grandkids, all enjoying the ambiance and the sunshine.
The weather of this day was far different, but the sentiments were similar to Mike Shay’s and those of others I had talked to in the storm the week before.
“I came for my children and grandchildren,” said 68-year-old Judy Danielson, as she wheeled her 2-year-old grandson, William, in a stroller. “So much is going for war and so little for everything else.”
Judy’s husband, Eric Wright, 65, said he had been to many rallies and demonstrations, but felt this one was “quite hopeful and high with energy.” Decrying the huge disparities in wealth, Eric asks why we can’t even look at countries in Scandinavia as models, where there are “capitalist economies with a social welfare commitment.”
Frank and Dawn Nowak were there with their daughter, Ann Walter, 40, and two grandchildren, Rowyn, 10, and Leith, 4. Frank, 65, who recently retired as the accounts payable manager at the University of Denver, said, “I came because I wanted to send a message to Congress. Since the 2010 election, all the emphasis has been on taking away rights, and saying that this is what the country wants. I just don’t feel it does.
“Many people disagree with our direction — the richest 1 percent getting so much and others so little.”
Dawn, 60, who also worked at DU, added, “I think this movement will bring the country back to the middle from the far right.”
Later on the phone, we discussed the perils for the next generation. “Even right now, I’m concerned about the lack of good-paying jobs and I don’t see this changing unless people speak up,” Dawn said.
Ann Walter, a 40-year-old nursing student, echoed her mother’s concerns. She wore a sign that said, “I’m the 99% and I have kids to feed.” But later, she said, “My family’s really OK, my husband is employed, but what about so many others who are struggling?
“We are bailing out the banks and corporations at our expense, then not investing in kids, schools and health care. There is no one answer, but this movement is getting up the dialogue and that’s exciting. People are waking up.”
Waking up. Maybe that’s what it’s all about. Others I spoke with seemed most concerned for their progeny in the future or with the people less fortunate right around them today.
I can’t say the few older Americans I talked to represented the whole crowd. But the tone of the rallies I attended seemed to echo their sentiments:
We are here and we care — and not only for ourselves.
Dottie Lamm, former first lady of Colorado and 1998 Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, is a social worker and an activist.
