Occupy Kuhio Hwy

Update: Videos and future gatherings posted at occupyingkauai.blogspot.com.

The 99% on Kaua’i held a couple of demonstrations today in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement that is spreading across the country.

My family went to the one on Kuhio Hwy, in front of Safeway in Kapa’a (there was another one later in Puhi, by the community college). I would say there were over 100 people spread along the sidewalk on both sides of the road.

OWS_Crowd2

The idea wasn’t to occupy anything here, just show our support for the causes and protesters in New York City. There were some local causes that were added to the mix as well: the sovereignty movement of course (upside down flag across the street), anti-smart meters (coming to KIUC), and I saw something about not killing wild horses.

Come to think of it, we were probably the most distant Occupy demonstration still in a US state (some people were protesting the occupation of Kaua’i too). Just for fun, I checked the distance, and it is 5010.6 miles.

OWS_Crowd1

So no tents, just a lot of signs. My wife and I made signs, and my daughter made one too, even came up with her own slogans. In fact, I reused my sign from the No-Ferry protest and just added another layer of cardboard:

NoFerryProtestSign OWS_Signs

My daughter is getting good at demonstrating on Kaua’i, she even made her own sign this time. After I explained the Occupy Wall Street protest to her in kids’ terms, she came up with “NO More Tricks, Occupy Wall $t” and painted the sign herself (hence the pink and turquoise, with a heart over the i).

The back of my sign says “Make Wall $t Pay for Toxic Greed,” in reference to the toxic derivatives and mortgage-backed securities that Wall Street cooked up and burned the economy with. But in the end, I like the “Green Not Greed” message much better.

But my favorite signs were the following two, because they are Kaua’i-themed and very clever:

OWS_StandUp

“Get Up, Stand Up” refers to both the Bob Marley song (next verse is “Stand up for your rights”), and stand-up paddleboarding which has taken over the surfing world, at least here in Hawai’i.

OWS_Awakening

The Sleeping Giant is the mountain near Kapa’a, but also a reference to the 99% in America. Hopefully, the Occupy Wall Street movement will lead to some real changes on Wall Street, because together we can move mountains.

For people on Kaua’i who want to participate, the website of the organizers is occupyingkauai.blogspot.com. They will give info about any future meetings there.

Even though the organizer is a young man, my wife noted how most of the demonstrators were older, from the Baby Boom generation. From the images in New York and elsewhere, there seem to be a lot more students and young adults. I’m not sure what that says about the involvement and awareness of that demographic on Kaua’i.

Printed from: http://great-hikes.com/blog/occupy-kuhio-hwy/.
© 2024.

2 Comments   »

  1. Pat Griffith says:

    Thanks for your blog! Great to hear about the “occupy” movement on Kauai!
    Pat

  2. Stuart says:

    Hi, I visited Kauai maybe ten years ago. Every now and then, fond memories come back. I wish I could eat some Hanalei Poi! The Occupy Movement seems to be petering out already. Too bad. Hawaii always had a very progressive reputation, so maybe people aren’t as upset as in the rest of the country. It looks like things are going back to “business as normal.”

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