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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 2011)
OREGON'S LGBTO NEWSMAGAZINE voices Intensity In The Tent City 3 a.m. Tuesday morning, and the man in the NOVEMBER 11, 2011 43 JS tens, Kerry and I sit on the bench to finish our dirty gray coat shouts that something has gone remember to breathe apple. We are surrounded by confusing noise terribly wrong. “I got stuck with a fucking nee BY N ICK MATTOS and barely controlled chaos, the sounds o f dle!” he bellows to no one in particular, throngs lighters flicking and drunk people laughing, o f people shutfling past him with duct tape coat get diffused by a calm, tired group o f vol “W hat will the revolution come down to?” he cars driving down Fourth Avenue, tarps flap armbands stuck to their jackets. “I’m here try unteer safety patrollers. The Occupy Portland snarls at no one in particular before merging ping in the wind. ing to save this goddamned country and I get camp exists in a time and space triangulated back into the sea o f people. I sigh as his unan stuck with some junkie’s fucking dirty needle!” between ancient Athens, a 1960s political swered question hangs in the air. A woman with a medic’s red armband stops demonstration and a post-apocalyptic refugee Kerry walks over to me, sits down next to a courthouse. It flutters languidly in the clear camp. Earlier that evening at the consensus- cardboard sign reading, “W hat country can night, poignantly lit up against the dark sky. It based administrative meeting called General preserve its liberties if their rulers are not strikes me that this fascinating, exciting, often Assembly, a discussion o f the tens o f thou warned from time to time that their people scary camp struggles under the weight o f apa “Ha!” a skinny man with glasses says im sands in dollars o f damages the city estimates preserve the spirit o f resistance?’—Thomas thy, crime and disorder— often to the extent petuously. “W e’re Occupy Portland! There’s no the protest to have already done to Chapman Jefferson.” that the movement’s larger aims (as I under shutting us down!” and Lonsdale Parks led a girl next to me to “How was your dishwashing shift?” I ask. stand them) are lost in the day-to-day effort snort in laughter. “W hat would they expect?” “O ther than getting a little soaked and hav to keep this strange little city-within-a-city beside us. “Are you okay?” she asks him. “No!” he shouts. “I’m going to get this damn thing shut down!” W hen I first heard that protesters fed up with Above us, between the tree branches, I see the immense American flag over the federal corporate money and interests influencing poli she asked, pulling her black hoodie close ing to scrape dried hummus oft the plates, functioning. This is a microcosm o f America tics had set up camp on Wall Street, I was in around her face. “There are over 500 people went pretty good. G etting tired at all?” at large: W e’re a nation o f idealists with altru trigued. As someone who sees far too many o f here! W hat else could we do?” “Yes. I t ’s definitely bed time.” I yawn, the istic, forward-thinking, even revolutionary my peers suffering under the current economy, I watch the kitchen volunteers hurriedly set trying in vain to get by despite our best efforts, I ting out trays of donated vegetables, rice, beans. Kerry takes a bite out o f a crisp apple, read with urgent social problems, forced to focus so resonated with the message that we are the 99 As soon as they hit the tables, hungry workers ing the sign beside us thoughtfully. “Jefferson much on putting out the proverbial fires that percent struggling beneath the financial control and passersby lunge for them, scoop piles onto was absolutely right,” she says between bites. the “American Dream” loses its coherence. o f the country’s most powerful 1 percent. So donated plates and eat voraciously. A rough- “He asserted that the nation would only suc when this occupation expanded nationally, even hewn order, borne on the strength o f countless ceed if a revolution occurred every 20 years.” me. “Up there. The American flag,” I reply, to the staid parks around Portland’s courthouses, hours o f volunteer service, keeps the occupation She hands the apple to me. “W e’re just hun smiling. “You know what? I think here, in the I dragged out my tent and sleeping bag to sup functioning with a thrilling energy o f controlled dreds o f years overdue.” camp, is probably the best view o f it we’ll port the movement for a night. chaos. Groups o f young men stride purposefiilly We walk into Beta Camp, straight into A n Now, I am sitting on a bench in Chapman beneath the tarps. A homeless man walks past archy Alley. Street kids smoke hand-rolled Square, watching the man in the dirty gray me with a hardened stare, spits on the ground. cigarettes, teenage girls play with skinny kit buzz o f activity around us notwithstanding. y O K T L ROD' ll.B E .ll goals, bogged down by the necessity of dealing “W hat are you laughing about?” Kerry askS ever get.” J K Reach N ick M attos at nickm attos@ justout.com . BTflTC I 2 V t iopm-iwm o p e n 2 4 HR/ CLO/ED THROK/GlVinC DAY flllDMGHT SPECIAL LIVE PERFORMANCE BV KRIS IMDERSOn www.reloxwithbris.com MUSIC BV DJ DflYE SLUTSKY FEATURING AUDE mODElS RED UGIITIÎIG A HOLIDAY ADYCATURC ruu o r fin a a d dsbauo h sry GLOW / TICK ADvemuRE/ RED=BOTTOm BLU6=TOP AVAILABLE AT CHECK Ifl $13 • LOCKER/ $ 22 . R o o m / $27 • VIDEO R O O m / $34 . DOUBLE/ /TEAm PORTLAflD • 2885 DE /AADY BLVD PORTLADD OR 97232 . UJW W ./team portland.COm . 503.736.9999 neuj memBER/ vi / it u / onLine for vitual tour aad a / pecial di / couated ADmi//ioA!
