VIENNA,Va., January 31, 2012 — “Tenting tonight on the old camp grounds…” is a very old Civil War song written by Walter C. Kittredge of New Hampshire, a poignant song on home and hearth, but I doubt either he or its many singers ever envisioned the sight at McPherson Square, presided over by Union General James Birdseye McPherson. It has been the site of a large portion of the Occupy DC protest in Washington, along with its smaller-brother site at Freedom Plaza.
The protesters have been notified that they may continue with their protest, but there will be no tenting tonight, or any other night, at least not on these camp grounds.
It must be noted that while the Freedom Plaza group apparently had obtained the proper permit for their space, it seems the McPherson Square failed to and had been tacitly allowed to “camp” there since October.
As of February 1, the large equestrian statue of McPherson has been covered – horse and all – by heavy vinyl blue tenting material, which the group, who placed it there, identified as “Our Tent of Dreams.” This seemed a bit too much for many non-affiliated observers. The fact remains that this city does like its generals.
The two sides had been fairly reserved in their attempts to reach common ground until the Park Police used a Taser device on a man who tore down one of the paper notices and resisted arrest, all thoroughly recorded by television crews.
Notice of no tenting overnight Photo:AP
There may be a new development today as the Occupiers from both groups await a hearing in U. S. District Court. Representatives of the Department of the Interior, Park Police, and the National Park Service want to press their goal of removing the protesters from the park, while groups from both sites want a restraining order issued against the Park Police in its enforcement of a long-standing ban against camping in the park. There are two different cases involved, and U. S. District Judge James E. Boasberg will hopefully ascertain which will prevail.
While the theoretical removal of the protesters from McPherson Square seemed to be proceeding quietly with the posting of enforcement orders on each tent (using duct tape – nails wouldn’t work!), the activity of covering Gen. McPherson’s statue with the large blue tent seemed to proverbially draw a line in the sand, even though holes were made for the General’s head and his horse to poke through.
The protest groups have stretched from Wall Street in New York to Oakland, Calif., and spots in between. Their stated purpose is to bring to the public’s attention to the financial inequities between the 1% of those in the United States, who qualify as rich, and the remaining 99%, who are less affluent, falling somewhere in the middle and working class and the poor.
There are many shades of gray in the terms “rich” and “poor.” And millions of people would look you in the eye and laugh if they were identified as “rich.” And there are others who, as long as they can see the sunshine and feel rain on their faces, see the face of a baby laughing gleefully, and still have a couple of bucks for a cup of coffee, feel rich indeed. It’s all in one’s perspective, it seems.
Emma Lazarus’ famous words on the Statue of Liberty include an invitation to “bring me your poor....” And in Matthew 26, Jesus explains to His disciples that, “The poor you will always have with you; but Me you will not always have….”
While the young and old occupants of McPherson Square may have a viable discourse on the subject of equalization of wealth across the country, covering a Union hero and his horse with a blue tarp somehow doesn’t seem the right way to do it.
Maybe we need another “general” to ride into town and enforce the applicable regulations.
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