Occupy Washington D.C. to protest Mountaintop Removal

Mike & Friends Blog

Crystal Zevon

Crystal Zevon is author of 'I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon,' an oral history of the life of her former husband and lifelong friend and co-conspirator

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November 16th, 2011 11:37 AM

Occupy Washington D.C. to protest Mountaintop Removal

Raining in D.C. and Homeless Occupiers

By Crystal Zevon

It's raining buckets in D.C. today. I woke up several times during the night. Thanks to a tarp over my $39 tent, I managed to stay pretty dry, but that wasn't the case for everyone. Keeping people healthy is a constant challenge here. There's one guy who walks around camp with a giant bottle of chewable Vitamin C hoping that might ward off a cold or two. We have a model kitchen here at Occupy Washington D.C. on Freedom Plaza. We've had folks from occupations all over the country passing through and they are stunned by how clean, organized and well managed our kitchen is. But, it's still an outdoor kitchen under a canopy that gets leaky in the rain.

We have a big action today. Folks from West Virgina who are fighting mountaintop removal for dirty coal are coming and we're marching with them to the EPA. Our GAs are still held outdoors, although we did get a donation and military tents for kitchen and community gatherings are on the way, but we'll be wet today.

The other worry here, and at all the Occupies from what we're hearing, is the homeless. I've learned to get back to sleep when there's a drunken brawl in the middle of the night. But, I can't go back to sleep when I hear a child crying in the night. We have a family here, mother, father and a 2 year old child. The mother works in the kitchen and the occupiers who run our Information tent often babysit. But, late at night every so often, the dad comes in drunk. He yells. The little boy wakes and cries. As a community, we have to figure out what to do. Will having social services take the child from his loving mother to be placed in foster care serve the child? There are good foster homes. But, there are also bad ones. But, this is a two year old living in a tent city. As my daughter says, the problems we are facing with the homeless, and ours are minimal compared to other occupations, simply proves why we need to stay and fight. These people need services, homes, jobs, rehab. Our job is to fight for them. We are the 99%