Average Age Of Protesters Arrested In Portland Today Is...

[Hissyspit]

http://www.portlandoccupier.org/2011/11/17/elders-have-spoken-with-their-bodies

Elders Have Spoken With Their Bodies
November 17, 2011
By an Old Woman Who Votes

The average age of the 25 people arrested this morning for demonstrating Civil Disobedience on the Steel Bridge is fifty. Nine were over sixty years old. It’s time for the spin masters at Portland’s City Hall to stop characterizing Occupy Portland as young and unrealistic. Some of us have weathered many struggles. From Civil Rights to Women’s rights, from Peace to Gay Rights, we have been on the front lines of every progressive political change in the past half-century.

Listen to us: the young idealists among us are more attuned to the realities on the ground than the politicians who continue to cast their lot with the banksters. The young, hard-working organizers who got this movement onto the ground and into the tents know what they’re doing.

By evicting Occupy Portland from the two tiny, seldom-used parks downtown, Portland’s mayor has betrayed the progressives who elected him, and if our Chief of Police thinks he’s going to ride into the mayor’s office on our backs, he’s more unrealistic than the greenest twenty-year-old.

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[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Yup many an elder out there

[MrMickeysMom]

39. And, I suspect, many more elders to be arrested...

Judging from the tightness from cuffs, they're going to have a lot of injuries.... I hope they are tying the courts up over this. This has GOT to be bankrupting the city.

[Tsiyu]

2. Funny that

This goes to the Greatest, for proving that people of ALL ages are fed up and willing to put themselves on the line for a better nation.

K&R

[tavalon]

48. People have different reasons for recommending

I recommend things that I want to see have greater exposure here, whether I personally agree with what happened in the news or not.

[Jackpine Radical]

51. I have the same approach.

"Rec"="Noteworthy"

[EFerrari]

3. K&R

[PETRUS]

4. I knew, but thanks for that. K&R

[BanzaiBonnie]

5. Sam Adams bowed to peer pressure

All those mayors on one phone call, with Homeland Security...

[woo me with science]

6. K&R

[FirstLight]

7. I can dig it!

I am right in between...to young to remember Woodstock and too old to be a Youngster...but I still got PASSION for EQUALITY! :bounce:

now if i can get my body back online soon, I will be able to keep up with the regional movements and help in my own way. ;)

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. K&R!

[Douglas Carpenter]

9. knr

[cui bono]

10. Yay 50!!!

[Solly Mack]

11. K&R

[Withywindle]

12. A lot of seniors were out at the direct action this afternoon in Chicago

to occupy the La Salle St Bridge, to point out that our aging infrastructure needs investment.

There was a big wheelchair section. Some people walked out on walkers. Some wheeled themselves there. Thanks to Rahm, Chicago is facing almost homicidal cuts in social services that help the elderly and disabled.

I have to say, screwing the elderly pisses me off more than almost anything else. People who have worked hard their whole lives and are starting to feel their bodies wind down--but still have so much experience and history to share. GDI, they deserve comfort and dignity and joy in their last years. And I wish Studs Terkel (RIP) was still around to interview them all and write down all their experiences for me to read before they go. :cry:

[Spitzbub]

45. Amen, brother

another Chicagoan siding with you. I've thought this before: I wish Studs was around to see this, he'd love it!

[Ken Burch]

53. Love it? Hell, Studs would be in custody by now!

n/t.

[Enthusiast]

13. Kicked and recommended! nt

[deutsey]

14. Yeah, but I bet they played bongos when they were younger!

:sarcasm:

[oldhippydude]

31. yep

bongos were cheap. and sitars were pretty complicated and a lot less portable

[Courtesy Flush]

15. K&R from an over-50 99%er nt

[lob1]

41. K&R from an over 70 99%er.

[lunatica]

16. I count myself lucky to be represented by the OWS

This 63 year old has more hope now than she has for decades. I love the OWS young people putting their bodies and lives on the line.

[roguevalley]

25. you and me both. Every generation has its

movement. We get two.

[Magoo48]

37. I too am 63 and grateful to the young for leading the way. I'm happy to follow!

[malthaussen]

17. Oh, I dunno...

I was born when the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, but I think "young and unrealistic" is an apt characterization of myself. :)

-- Mal

[raccoon]

18. You Portland geezers and geezerettes rock! nt

[Dawgs]

19. Unfortunately, many DUers also believe that this is some kind of youth movement.

99% is made up of people from age 0 to age 100+. This is a movement for ALL generations, not just the young.

[Pacifist Patriot]

21. The average age of the participants at the few events I've been able to...

attend in Florida has easily been into the forties.

[Magoo48]

38. True...but, IMO, it's their time to lead...

[barbtries]

20. i'm 56

and believe that the occupy movement is possibly one of the most important developments in my lifetime. the world can change.

[MaineDeadHead]

22. Average...

... is a poor statistic in isolation. A one hundred year-old arrested with a couple who were 20 and 21 would have an average age of 47 but that doesn't really describe the group very well. What was the median age of those arrested?

Edit: This was sposed to reply to the OP not the post above it. My bad.

[dotymed]

29. The O.P. said that out of the 25 arrested, 9 were over 60.

So, in this case, median may be pretty close to average. In any event, we were being well represented.

Go OWS!

[SalviaBlue]

23. K&R

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. When I lived in Portland, the demonstrations were made up largely of two groups:

Young people in their teens and twenties and graying or gray people over fifty.

Very few people in their thirties and forties.

[oldhippydude]

33. thats probably because..

most of those folks are too busy working 2 or more jobs, its not lack of interest, its survival.. i spent a number of years doing that.. politically active in the 60's.. not getting active again till forced to retire by medical problems.. its the folks who cant be there that are the invisible 99ers.. the ones that truly count..

[tavalon]

49. Well, Iv'e been an activist since 2001

I just turned 48. We are out here, but yeah, we're the sandwich generation, burdened by children who can't get jobs and elders needing help as well. That's my guess, anyway, but our child will always be with us since he has autism and none of the still living elders have wanted to live with us.

[secondwind]

26. Amen! Hubby, 68, and I, almost 65, were out there in Boston in the rain and wind last night.

[LittleGirl]

27. I love this

and I have to offer this: Most middle aged people are still working that have jobs and can't attend these protests. The younger, the retired, they can attend. Usually unemployed, just saying...

[tilsammans]

28. K & R for the Boomer demographic!!!

I'm among ya.

[oldhippydude]

34. us boomers

have been berated as the "me generation".. funny thing we stopped the Vietnam war, we started Earth Day.. in addition to partying at Woodstock, we had our Heads bashed at Chicago, and shot at Kent State..

i was born in 1946.. as was Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.. i feel honored to remember the 60's and feel the stirring again in these aging bones.. bless the kids that started this occupy movement i truly think its our last best hope.. we got your back!!

my 65th birthday Was September 17... never could i have anticipated a better birthday present, we live in interesting times, and i feel fortunate being in the thick of it..


PS... hey Skinner what's up with the spell checker.. it mollases slow lately

[defendandprotect]

30. KR ---

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

32. K & R. nt

[duhneece]

35. Makes this 60 yr old heart smile nt

[watajob]

36. Like the grandma...

... who was 84 that KO interviewed on his show that was pepper sprayed. 'Cuz we all know all seniors are living in the lap of luxury. Our media blows goats. Liberal bias, my big, fat, hairy ass!!!

[tcaudilllg]

40. I hope you have the guts to give them an earfull at the monthly meeting.

[jwirr]

42. I am in my 70s and that does not surprise me. This age remember

what it used to be like before raygun & co. Many of them worked to build the world that is disappearing. One of the most painful thing for me is to watch as things like civil rights are eroded - the things we marched for back then. Of course it does not hurt that we stand to lose Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid just when we need it the most.

[Lifelong Protester]

43. K & R for all the folks, young and old, giving us hope by

taking part in this movement! I haven't made it to an official 'occupy' yet, but did stand in the cold in Madison several times last year, as well as the long string of marches for women's rights, gay rights, native american rights, ending the wars (the endless wars...), and so on.

Seems like every generation needs to take it to the streets, so bless you all!!Even if you have 'seen this movie before', THANK YOU!!!

[SteveM]

44. Neither "young" nor old hippies; somewhere in between. nt

[patrice]

46. Hey Portland, I have an idea! Why don't you elect that "greenest twenty-year old" instead?

[AntiFascist]

47. When the supercongress cuts medicare and SS...

all of the elderly need to break out their walkers and join OWS.

[jumptheshadow]

50. I hope Alex Pareene from Salon reads this...

The guy fell hook, line and sinker for the conservative meme pitting young vs. old and wrote a bigoted article trashing older people... He didn't appear to do a scintilla of research, he just unloaded a dumb screed that he will probably regret in about 20 years.

[Ken Burch]

52. Let's hear it for the over-50 rebels!!!!

(I say that as somebody who will be 51 in December.)

[FailureToCommunicate]

54. You're only as old as you feel...

But you FEEL a lot older after a few nights in a tent, in the city with all the noise, in November rain...

[sce56]

55. Just remember all the retirees that lost their pensions thanks to corporate malfeasance etc

I was working with a contractor recently that was called in and I recognized his name from old records at the plant he retired more than ten years ago then had to go back to work thanks to Enron!

[pam4water]

56. You whipper snapper hooligans, you ;) K&R

[Sparkly]

57. Get ready for the backlash against the Boomers.

They've always got some stereotypical scapegoat.

(I love the older people out there though -- a special brand of heroes!!)