By Peter Wallsten
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Using the “human microphone” that has become common at Occupy Wall Street demonstrations across the country, a group interrupted Obama as he prepared to deliver a speech at a high school here
assailing Republicans for inaction on the economy.
“Mr. President,” the group said, “over 4,000 peaceful protesters have been arrested. . . . ”
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Tom LaValley, 23, who described himself as a member of Occupy New Hampshire, told reporters later that about 20 demonstrators had stood in line Monday to obtain tickets. He was complimentary of Obama’s response.
“He looked us in the eye, let us speak,” LaValley said. “He didn’t drag us out, didn’t have security come get us.”
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And families like the Corkerys, families like yours, young people like the ones here today, including the ones who were just chanting at me, you’re the reason I ran for office in the first place. (Applause.) Because it’s folks like you who are why I spent so much time up here in the dead of winter four years ago. Because even then, we were going through a difficult decade for the middle class -- more good jobs in manufacturing that was leaving our shores. More of our prosperity was built on risky financial deals and homes that weren’t properly financed. And families watched their incomes fall, and wages flatline, and the cost of everything from college to health care kept on going up. And then the financial crisis hit in the closing weeks of the campaign -- and that made things even tougher.
Today, many Americans have spent months looking for work, and others are doing the best they can to get by. There are a lot of folks out there who are giving nights up -- nights out, they just can’t do that anymore because they’ve got to save on gas or make the mortgage. There are families who are putting off retirement to make sure their kids can go to college. And then there are young people who have gone to college, gotten a whole bunch of debt, and find themselves unable to find opportunity.
So a lot of the folks who have been down in New York and all across the country, in the Occupy movement, there is a profound sense of frustration -- (applause) -- there is a profound sense of frustration about the fact that the essence of the American Dream -- which is if you work hard, if you stick to it, that you can make it -- feels like that’s slipping away. And it’s not the way things are supposed to be. Not here. Not in America. (Applause.)
This is a place where your hard work and your responsibility is supposed to pay off. It’s supposed to be a big, compassionate country where everybody who works hard should have a chance to get ahead -– not just the person who owns the factory, but the men and women who work on the factory floor. (Applause.)
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