10/11 Into It: Occupy Wichita

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KMUW / Andrew Bales

The Occupy movement has spread across the country with rapid intensity, even appearing in Wichita. Andrew Bales has more on this week’s Into It.

Into It: Occupy Wichita

As Governor Sam Brownback escorted a herd of docile longhorn cattle under the stoplights at Douglas and Main, Occupy Wichita began its second week in Chester Lewis Reflection Park only a block and a half away.

The Occupy Wall Street movement that started with a few hundred people gathering in New York has spread to over a thousand cities in less than a month.

With millions of Americans facing unemployment, underemployment, the burden of insurance costs and debt, the sum of these forces appears to have a unifying effect, drawing out those who feel that corporate interests have long trumped the needs of citizens.

While some political and media figures have accused the protesters of “class warfare,” even throwing around terms like “un-American,” this rhetoric just doesn’t stick.

Even as it began to rain, people gathered in the courtyard. They talked and played music, shared food, and stood on street corners with signs.

I asked supporter Jessica Baughman why she was participating in Occupy Wichita. “I’m out here to have discussions to work for solutions to all of these problems as we’re facing as a country.”

In the first week of its existence, Occupy Wichita has garnered crowds ranging form handfuls during the week to hundreds on the weekends. Baughman believes that this continued physical presence is key.

“I don’t want to be one of those people who sits around and does nothing. I want to be out, and I’ve been able to network with this amazing group of people that want to get things done as well.”