I spent a few days photographing and talking to the Occupy Together protesters in my town of Falmouth, Massachusetts. I found them to be well informed and articulate in expressing their concerns about contemporary America.
The Falmouth protesters are not camping out on town property like the protesters in New York or Boston. They assemble every afternoon at 5:00 PM and hold up their signs until it's dark, then they go home. The events are peaceful and there appears to be strong support from people driving or walking past the protests. There have not been any clashes with law enforcement and no acts of violence or vandalism.
These protests are not riots. They are a wonderful example of citizens engaging in free speech on the public square, which I believe was the original intent of James Madison and the other authors of the Constitution. Our modern interpretation of free speech has morphed into bribing political leaders with millions of dollars in campaign donations. Any citizen has the power to speak up on the public square about the issues that confront society, but few citizens can afford to bribe their representatives with huge cash donations. Free speech in modern America is not free.
Perhaps our conversations about what the constitution does and does not say should begin with defining free speech. How much better would our country be if corporate executives and Wall Street bankers were limited to standing on the public square holding up signs supporting their right to screw the rest of us instead of paying politicians to do it for them?
Monte