occupy this.

I recently attended a presentation given by artist and activist Blythe Riley concerning her experiences within the occupy movement. I have to say that some personal accounts of the movements that she was involved in both interested and appalled me. I was not appalled by the activists, it is anyone's right to protest for the freedoms that they believe are being denied them, I was appalled by the reactions of some of the authority figures. The strongest reaction I had was to the activists within the group "Occupy Museums" prompt removal from the museum of finance when they were simply presenting the museum in question with a cardboard model of a house. I believe that it was quite obvious that the stunt was harmless and that the Museum of Natural History had the correct reaction in letting the occupy movement go about their business. Some of the responses of the crowd to Riley's presentation were odd to me as well, I think that many people saw it as a means to get a response from the authorities when clearly it was meant as a means to simply get the word out that something is wrong. I don't find some of the ideas of the group to be all that worth wile, such as the new economy ideas, but it is clear that they are trying to steer our future in the right direction. Her talk was eye opening, especially to someone who had only seen a few of the news reports on the activities of the occupy movement, and the fact that she opened her talk with an activity on whether or not we have debt brought her talk more to home.