About a dozen people turned out at twilight Friday evening on the Chase Bank plaza in Fountain Square for an Occupy Evanston protest.
It was the third of four Occupy events in the city Friday. The day began at noon with an estimated 75 people picketing a speech on the Northwestern campus by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
The protestors said Cantor speaks only for the richest 1 percent of Americans, while the demonstrators were speaking for the other 99 percent.
About two dozen protestors later held what was billed as a teach-in on Deering Meadow along Sheridan Road, and the day was scheduled to wrap up with a session on the plaza at Church Street and Maple Avenue to plan future events.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, in Evanston earlier Friday to tour a federally-funded housing rehabilitation project, said many of the Occupy protesters demands — whether in Evanston or on Wall Street — still seem unclear.
But he said he shares their concerns about income inequality and income insecurity for working families and the impact of financial institutions and their lobbyists on political decision-making in Washington.
Snark Not Appreciated
I certainly would have been at Fountain Square had I known about the Occupy gathering. I will be keeping my eyes open in the future for gatherings.
The "Phone Booth Edition" was unneccesary. The Occupy movement is not going away whether groups are large, small, in Evanston, Chicago, or Wall Street.
Income equality
Not sure what Durbin knows about income inequality or insecurity …. His salary is $174,000 (with free medical insurance for life), The salaries for his staff are;
10/01/2010 – 03/31/2011 | $1,374,168
04/01/2010 – 09/30/2010 | $1,697,781
10/01/2009 – 03/31/2010 | $1,493,961
Occupy
All these "Occupy" freeloaders should be protesting in front of the White House, not Evanston, Chicago, or Wall Street
Exactly
You hit the nail on the head. We should all (regardless of party affiliation) be marching on Washington.
Occupy Whatever!
Donna
Occupy Evanston, Chicago, New York, whatever….Just stay out of my way while I'm on my way to my 60 hour a week job.
Donna at Occupy ?
Donna, considering that the "occupy" people appear to have a different message every day and have been funded by the likes of George Soros and facilitated by ex-members of the disgraced ACORN organization what new reason would you waste your time attending this type of event. You can't say forgiveness of student loans, back re-election of Obama, nothing else to do, government handouts, or free food. Those have already been used numerous times.
Occupy
Let's not forget what may be the prime mover of Occupy, MoveOn.org. This may be the most left-wing of all of George Soros-funded organizations, a scary thing on Hallowe'en!
Should have stuck around!
Hi: I was there and you should have stuck around; somewhere between 40 and 50 people showed up and we had a very pleasant short march to Maple and Church and a rally there with great public support. I can see some very silly comments above from people who clearly just don't get it. This is in support of OccupyChi and Occupy Wall Street and is long overdue. This should have been happening years ago. But now that it is, it is very important to give voice to our support, even if that is just symbolically. America belongs to the people ~~ NOT to the huge multinational corporations that literally write our legislation and hand it over to bought and paid for politicians who make a sham of our democracy. I urge ALL citizens of every town to take a stand, even if that means standing on a corner alone and suffering through snarky comments from a few; the vast majority of Americans are with you. We Are the 99%. Will be back on Fridays at same meet-up location (in from of Chase Bank, by Fountain Square) at 6pm. Go to OccupyEvanston.com for updates.
Soros? Acorn?
I see that the Fox watchers are among us misreprepresenting (and misunderstanding) a movement that leaves them in the dust as they shout "Ditto that, Rush!" and go back to mumbling about the defunct Acorn and the American citizen George Soros (just like Bill O'Reilly does!)
I will make every effort to be at Fountain Square on Friday evening, after I finish my 40 hour work week.
Bless the 99%.
And don't forget to miss Fox and Friends.
Soros
Donna is right. Soros is a naturalized citizen. WOW That is something that should be revoked.
Government at the heart of the problem
My husband is a trader. I would be out there protesting right along with the occupy movement too- if they had a unified message.
1. End government manipulation of the market- This does not mean no regulation. It means the government should let banks fail. When the press tells you that banks were too big to fail, it is a lie. They would not have failed. The bondholders would just not have been made full on their returns, as they were. Not one bank bondholder lost money- Who are the bond holders? The 1%.
2. PUt the Glass Stegall act back into effect. After the Great Depression until 1989, commercial banking (meaning your savings/checking account) and investment banking(meaning risk taking ventures) were separate. The government provided guarantees onto to commercial banking. The banks could only lend out what they hand in storage, and collect a small return. Ronald Reagan took out Glass Stegall- I was too young to vote then, but my parents did vote for Reagan. He was a nice guy, but an economic idiot. No other president has re-instated Glass Stegall, or increased regulations, so one can not blame one party or another. They are both responsible for this mess.
3. Put back in regulations that decrease leverage- What does this mean? Banks currently gamble $20 or more on every $1 that they have in the bank. Are you allowed to go to a casino and gamble with money you don't have? No. Neither should the banks.
People need to take down the signs that say "capitalism has failed." We do not have a capitalist system right now. Put away the communist manifesto books. Bring the protests to outside Washington- The government gave everyone the koolaide, so yelling only at Wall Street for drinking it is one sided at best.
Bad facts at the heart of the problem
Dear Occupy,
Please get your facts correct.
Glass- Stegall was repealed under the Clinton administration and was made worse by his requiring 35% of mortgages were to go to the "poor". Then Jim Johnson and Franklin Raines cooked the books at Fanny and Freddie, thus enabling the morgage mess.
Oh?
Don’t Forget Frank/Dodd
Who can forget, when asked about bad consequences of making No Doc, subprime loans and pushing home ownership for all, Frank said we should "…roll the dice." And that they fought all attempts to rein in the GSA and tighten rules for mortgages.
Tea party and occupy- protesting two sides of the same coin
You are right, I've got the date wrong on glass-stegall, I was 8 years old when Reagan was president , so cut me some slack. If you have watched the INside Job movie (highly recommended), you would see that REagan did start the ball rolling on deregulation.
and two republicans with a republican majority put this Glass-Stegall law through- But this is totally besides my point.
The mess has been created not by either party, but by BOTH parties- Do any of you truly feel that there is a difference between Republicans or Democrats these days? Here we are arguing over stupid details, but at the heart of the matter, we all agree. OUr current system is corrupt and broken.
The tea partiers blame the government.
The occupy movement blames Wall Street.
Is there truly a difference between the two?
I see it as the government started handing out all the free drinks, and Wall Street (and everyone with a big mortgage) drank it up.
We need to get government out of the "business" of lending mortages (as you say above), out of the business of backing banks, out of the business of "saving" failed companies.
At the same time, we need corruption out of the government. REgulators should be barred from coming from or later going to work at the same companies they regulate. Campaign finance reform.
WE also need to put stops to some of the unlimited power of banks. Decrease leverage. Increase capital reserve requirments. Separate investment banking from commerical banking.
I'd personally like to see an ENd to the FEd. Why should an un-elected secretive body get to decide the interest rates?
What a joke. Can’t people
What a joke. Can't people find something better to do with their time. Even bigger joke that Evanston Now acknowledges this. Why don't you focus on why the downtown Evanston business is dying. Do an interview with the so-called mayor!
Occupy Northwestern
Northwestern's endowment was $5.9 billion in mid 2010, estimated as ninth among US and Canadian universities. By August 2010 it had grown to $6.3 billion, with an estimated rank of eighth. In 2003, Northwestern finished a five-year capital campaign that raised $1.55 billion, $150 million more than its goal. In 2007, the university sold its royalty interest in the pain relief drug Lyrica for $700 million, a drug developed at Northwestern by Richard Bruce Silverman, the John Evans Professor of Chemistry. This was the largest such sale in history, the proceeds of which were added to the endowment.
Northwestern University has received in excess of $100 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ARRA funding.
Where is the outrage against them? They have reveived over $100 million in tax dollars. Seems with all this money they could share some of their good fotrune with the city that they call home. Why not take your Occupy demonstration onto campus?
Occupy this
"Northwestern University has received in excess of $100 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ARRA funding."
They have reveived over $100 million in tax dollars. Seems with all this money they could share some of their good fotrune with the city that they call home.
_____________________________
You mean Chicago? Much – probably most – of the government funding that Northwestern receives goes to the medical school, which is in Streeterville.
NU for the 99%
A group of NU students are calling for a march on Friday for ‘NU for the 99%.’
Does this mean that it is not for any student whose parents make more than $360,000 and they should leave NU ? Bill Gates kids should not come to NU ? No one making more than that should donate to NU since their money is dirty and at the expense of the 99% That they will march on the Ryan’s house ? the Pritzker’s house ? the families asked to fund the Bienen school of music ? any family that makes more than $360,000 should not donate to a new student center ? Kellogg, the medical and law schools should go independent from NU since many of their students will hope to be in the 1% ?