Occupy New Year's Day Summit and Occupy the Rose Parade: Recap of What You May Have Missed

While a lot of attention is often placed upon the pomp and circumstances of an already planned huge media event, the overall message can also be missed.

In the inception of the event called Occupy the Rose Parade, three main subjects were chosen to focus on as topics of discussion as well as themes for signs to be used in Occupy the Rose Parade.  Early on in the planning stages, a teach in style format was turned into a Summit on New Year’s Day which fell on a Sunday this year, becoming an additional day of opportunity to get those messages out. Traditionally and apparently for 123 years now, the parade never happens on a Sabbath day, so when the 1st is on Sunday, the parade event is Monday. 

Sunday January 1st was called Occupy New Year’s Day Summit.  Memorial Park in Old Town Pasadena was designated as the place given to occupiers to meet each other as well as the curious to meet occupiers. Speakers in attendance first greeted passersby with answers to their questions and later discussed their topics ‘Stop Foreclosures,’ ‘End Corporate Personhood,’ and ‘Money Out of Politics’ in a conversational panel on the stage of the Levitt Amphitheater under the heading of Corporate Responsibility. 

Just down the street, history was once again made at the politically active All Saints Church as they agreed to host a discussion with the interfaith community based on the question ‘What is the role of Faith-Based organizations’ on economic justice in light of the Occupy Movement?’

The program was opened with a statement by Rev. R. Edwin Bacon, the rector of All Saints. The first panel discussion focused on the foreclosure crisis and how faith communities can respond. The second panel was called ‘Occupied Faith’ discussing questions such as ‘Are you ready to occupy your faith community?’ Both panels were opened up to questions from those present. An interesting point was brought up by an audience member about how many of the 1% are still actively engaged in charitable philanthropy. 

The final part of the program featured a performance art piece based on the idea of ‘movement’ related to dance and also acapella music performances of NoFX’s ‘Occupy’ by occupiers from L.A. and Oakland/Seattle and the Agape Children’s Choir from the Agape International Spiritual Center. 

Monday January 2nd was designated as the day for Occupy the Rose Parade. A very vibrant group of what looked to be perhaps a thousand occupiers and their supporters left Singer Park and joined in to the end of the Rose Parade with a 250 foot long ‘We the People’ and another smaller ‘We the Corporations’ banner as well as a host of marchers and street performers for the symbolic 44th human float. The ’99′ float (as in 99%) brought in some fun ‘Doo Dah’ style entertainment including a huge octopus with tentacles representing the far reaching effects of the bank bailouts, and billionaires.org featuring their own style of New Orleans marching band style flair. 

Just west of City Hall, an after parade rally and concert featured speakers which included anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and music performances by members of the Illuminaries and the Billionaries, Laura Love, plus a special appearance by a character by the name of Michelle99, looking much like the image of the protester from the recent Time Magazine cover featuring the person of the year as ‘The Protester.’ From that point, occupiers began taking the microphone to share their stories in song and dialogue as Michelle99 accompanied them on guitar and engaged some of the audience to sing along with her version of NoFX’s ‘Occupy.’

It is quite clear that the messages are now reaching millions more people including hundreds of thousands who were there on site and all of the social media even coming from mainstream media as well as the live streaming feeds carrying the now recorded uncensored and complete story.  

Many streamers were on hand to capture both days including the infamous Spencer Mills from Oakland who told me that he is next setting his sites to cover what is expected to be the largest Occupy gathering ever on the Mall in Washington D.C. in a couple of weeks.

The interfaith community dialogue is a huge step forward to include serious discussion and action on moral responsibility as well as to grow solidarity with the Occupy Movement. Rev. Bacon shared with me that his congregation is going to be given opportunities this year to learn more about economics in the world we now live in. 

Occupiers are diverse, compassionate and peaceful people who are deeply concerned about the present and the future, are reaching out to people being foreclosed on right NOW, and so much more than most people have understood… perhaps until now. 

Stay tuned for more updates of the ongoing story as Occupy moves into a new era!

Love and Peace NOW,

NOWMAN