Nicole Brodeur
disasterpastor Eric Bentsen
Comments in Seattle Times about latest #OccupySeattle opinion piece. community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/reader_feedbac…
'Occupy Fatigue' hits home
The door opened just a crack. I saw a girl's face, and then it closed.
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Seattle Times staff columnist
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Yes we're sick of it. My daughter is transferring from Seattle Central CC after this qu... 
When it opened again, there was a bearded young man in a bathrobe. I asked why he and his Occupy Seattle brethren had taken over this empty house on 23rd Avenue in Seattle.
"We're finding in Seattle there are people living homeless," he told me, "and houses are sitting empty everywhere, and we think that's disgusting."
Empty because of banks ... ? Greed? Unemployment? That, I understand.
But I'm not clear how taking the place over is moving that message forward.
This house belongs to someone, according to county property records. You're squatting; living in a vacant house with pizza boxes hung in the windows, a washer sitting outside. You've painted the place green and scrawled "Seize the Power Now" on the electrical meters.
"We're trying to make it livable," said the young man, who refused to give me his name or age, "and make sure it's something that the community as a whole will be happy to live with."
Happy? Hardly. My sense is that the community is experiencing what I have come to call "Occupy Fatigue."
A lot of people no longer have a sense about why hundreds have taken over Westlake Park, Seattle Central Community College and now this house. They tell me they're too busy going to work and finding detours around the protests to divine the ever-mushier message of the movement.
"We are trying to survive a difficult economic time," said reader Pat Davis, 63, who told me she is an "activist at heart."
"We don't need you blocking our streets and closing our ports down," she said. "You are affecting small businesses, as well, by cutting off supplies.
"It's uneducated."
I agree that the big banks are predatory, that the 1 percent is breathing rarefied air, while so many Americans are hyperventilating over their jobs, their checking accounts and their very futures.
So it made sense to Occupy Wall Street, where the country's fat cats ply their trade.
It made sense to take over Westlake Park, a stone's throw from the city's financial and political towers.
The people were fighting, they had pooled their power into something formidable, and real. This is activism at its very heart.
Then the garbage started piling up. Occupying looked more like hanging out, saying you weren't working to represent the lack of jobs and culture of greed.
Then came the protest on the University Bridge during a Thursday night rush hour.
Many of those caught in the jam squeezed their steering wheels and wondered how this was helping them, the 99 percent. I can't say I blame them.
Mark Taylor-Canfield, one of the spokespeople for Occupy Seattle, told me that the University Bridge protest was organized by Working Washington, and that his group was there in support.
As for Occupy Seattle's support? Stronger every day.
"If the number of endorsements coming in and the number of people willing to volunteer and donate money and resources is any indication," he said. "It's officially growing."
The Sierra Club, the Washington State Labor Council and the Seattle City Council have all endorsed Occupy Seattle, he said, adding that churches and other organizations are joining up every day.
One institution that isn't endorsing Occupy is Seattle Central Community College, which voted the other week to get them off the grounds — a move that Occupy is appealing.
It seemed apt, at first, that Occupy set up at a place where minds were wide open and primed to make change.
But then students started to complain about the mess, the drugs, the constant smell of weed and whatever else.
You lose the students, you lose a lot. And now this house?
Sarah Moody, 29, was just moving into a house around the corner on East Alder Street.
"I'm pro-Occupy," she said. "But I wonder what the endgame is. I guess they're making a point to the banks. Making the banks pay attention to these houses that they're otherwise ignoring."
Rita McPhaul, 47, has lived in the house next door for a decade.
"If it's not yours, don't take over, that's all I got to say," she said. "I'm still waiting for my 40 acres and a mule, but you don't see me taking over a house."
I'm with McPhaul. I'm with the people trying to get across the bridge. I'm standing on the porch with an open notebook in my hand, confused.
Here was an activist who wouldn't give me his name, his age. He wouldn't tell me how many people were staying there, or in how many rooms.
I told him that people were getting frustrated with Occupy, and offered to share his message.
"I understand," he said. He paused to think, and then said nothing.
A friend of mine tells me to be more patient. "Anger is never coherent," she said.
I'm just not sure it's a protest if you can't explain why you're doing it.
Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.
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