Since the protests began on September 17, 2011, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement has been gaining attention and momentum in the news and across the Web. At the time of this writing, the demands of the protesters have been vague and undefined, causing the entire movement to be called into question. The open-ended nature of the protests has lead to discussions and debates amongst friends and family as to what we believed the protesters sitting in Zuccotti Park are trying to accomplish. Are the protests against income inequality? Nine percent unemployment rates? Corrupt political campaign financing? Fracking? Or are they lazy hippies camping in a park? Online research did not answer these questions. In hopes of gaining a better insight into the protests, my friends and I decided we should head down to Zuccotti Park and check out OWS for ourselves.

Our trip downtown happened on Thursday night, October 13. We arrived around 7 p.m., right as the protesters were congregating for their general assembly. Earlier that day Mayor Bloomberg announced that Friday morning at 7 a.m. there would be a mandatory evacuation of the park to allow for sanitation crews to come in and clean. This was the major topic of discussion during the assembly. In an effort to avoid being evicted from their new home, the protesters offered to clean the park themselves. As we walked around the area we saw teams of people scrubbing the sidewalks and collecting trash bags. Other groups were pruning the trampled chrysanthemums and replacing mulch on the flower beds. From the moment we walked into the park the mood was very clear; these were people who wanted to work together for something better. The person speaking to the crowd announced that, should eviction occur, they would work together to find housing. Another person spoke about the importance of maintaining the sustainability of the movement and how they all needed to work hard to remain in the park.

Everyone seemed to be getting along and looking out for one another. A library was set up so people could find books to read as well as a makeshift kitchen where people were handing out dinner to lines of protesters. OWS seemed to be more of an exercise in communal living than evidence of any real political movement. Our visit to Zuccotti Park did not prove to be fruitful in answering any of our questions about what exactly the protesters were trying to protest. Nevertheless, having seen first hand what was going on, we left with a sense that people wanted to work together to make things better. There were definitely people pointing fingers and blaming the one percent, or corporations, or Republicans for their problems and there will always be people like that. However, the people who I think had the loudest message and will have the most impact in the long run, are those who are above laying blame on others. They are the ones organizing the kitchens and libraries and cleaning up the park. They are proving that people can work together for something better. We don’t have to fight and hate one another; instead, we can act like rational adults and accomplish something bigger and better in the end. The actions of some of the protesters speak louder than any of the whiny posters or blog posts. We’re all in this together, so why not work together too?