On Monday simultaneous actions occurred in towns where Rep. Walden has offices (Medford, Bend & La Grande), his hometown (Hood River) and Klamath Falls. Hundreds turned out to Occupy Walden! The goal of the action was to expose Walden for his support of Wall Street, not Main Street. The actions highlighted Walden’s lack of representation of the 99%. The demand was simple: hold 5 accessible Town Halls with open questions and answers in different regions of the district between December and April. Instead of agreeing to meet with the people to hear directly about their concerns and needs, Walden’s office called the police and 14 occupiers were arrested.
As Patrick Vroman of Klamath Falls shares, “Fourteen of Congressman Greg Walden’s constituents were arrested in Medford and Bend for making a very reasonable demand: commit to holding five accessible, well publicized, public town halls over the next five months, with one being immediately scheduled for Congress’s winter recess. Oregon’s senators visit each of the state’s 36 counties once per year — so where’s Walden? Why can’t he be more accessible to his constituents? The only apparent answer is that he’d rather look out for Wall Street’s interests.”
Herb Rothschild, one of the 6 arrested in Bend gets to the heart of the problem, quoted in the Medford Mail Tribune: “The meetings are a symptom of the problem, but not the problem,” said Herbert Rothschild, a Phoenix resident and Ashland Peace House member who was one of those arrested. “People with wealth have much better access than people who don’t.
“The real issue here is not Mr. Walden’s schedule,” Rothschild said. “The real issue is Mr. Walden’s votes. His votes are for Wall Street, not our street.”
Just a few of the immediate results from this action: Walden left another meeting and actually met with 40 Oregonians in DC the following day. Can we assume he is feeling the heat and didn’t want the bad publicity for not showing up? A vibrant discussion at the Medford Mail Tribune website about the failures of Walden to represent the 99%. A poll at KTVZ with results showing a neck in neck tie around how accessible Walden is (when polls usually tend around 70% approval for Walden!).
Stay tuned for next steps and more organizing to Occupy Walden! And congrats to folks in Bend, La Grande, Hood River, Medford and Klamath Falls who made the first cross-district occupation a huge success!
On Monday simultaneous actions occurred in towns where Rep. Walden has offices (Medford, Bend & La Grande), his hometown (Hood River) and Klamath Falls. Hundreds turned out to Occupy Walden! The goal of the action was to expose Walden for his support of Wall Street, not Main Street. The actions highlighted Walden’s lack of representation of the 99%. The demand was simple: hold 5 accessible Town Halls with open questions and answers in different regions of the district between December and April. Instead of agreeing to meet with the people to hear directly about their concerns and needs, Walden’s office called the police and 14 occupiers were arrested.
OPB, KPOJ, Fire Dog Lake blog, Medford Mail Tribune, Bend KTVZ, Oregon Live, and many other media sources covered the story! Our live blogof the actions got 700 hits! Connect to these stories by clicking the links above.