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The Activist Beat with Rose Aguilar, host of Your Call on KALW in San Francisco is a weekly roundup of progressive activism that the mainstream media ignores, undercovers, or misrepresents.

After spending the last year covering undercovered activism, it’s heartening to see the Occupy Wall Street movement gain so much momentum.

While the movement is getting the coverage it deserves in the national media, several talking heads still can’t seem to figure out what the people want. They’re either really good actors or even more disconnected than I thought.

All they have to do is venture out and ask questions.

On Saturday, I spent three hours at Occupy Santa Rosa in Northern California. Santa Rosa is about an hour north of San Francisco. It was the largest rally the city has ever seen. As the hours went by, the crowds grew.

I first met Kira Findling, a 14-year-old freshman who goes to Santa Rosa High. Her school has just four counselors for 2400 students, no full-time librarian, and just two janitors. She says the bathrooms are often closed because there aren’t enough janitors to keep them clean.

Kaiwie Fastwolf is a nurse who is seeing more and more patients go to the emergency room because they are losing their healthcare. A number of nurses were at the rally calling for a financial transaction tax. A 0.5 percent Wall Street tax could raise up to $175 billion a year in revenue.

Chris, a 50-something self-employed construction worker held a homemade sign saying: “We are the 99%. We demand our government, jobs, homes, and money back from the 1% that stole them.’ Chris can’t find work and is on the verge of losing his home. Occupy Santa Rosa was the first rally he’s ever attended. So what caused him to get involved? “I don’t know what else to do,” he told me. “They took it all.”

Mary Mathews, a social worker, stumbled upon the rally on her way to a movie. She told me she’s been waiting for something like this movement to happen. Economic stress is causing her clients to get divorced and many are turning to drugs and alcohol.

Mateo Swaim-Brouwer, a 17-year-old, held a sign saying: “Your 1-Year Bonus = 200 Years of My Youth Program.” Mateo works with an LGBTQ organization — one of the only safe places in the area. Its budget is about $100,000 a year and it’s all based on donations. He’s concerned about future funding.

Twenty-three year-old Sasha La-Rochelle held a sign saying: “I’ve Been Homeless Since January. All I want is to eat every day and have shelter.” Sasha has been sleeping in her truck and on friends’ couches since January. She didn’t eat for a week in December. She recently found a $9 an hour job at the mall, but can’t get more than 20 hours a week. She’s currently looking for another job so she can rent a room.

John Sutter, a building contractor, held a professional looking ‘Top 10 Demands sign.’ It said: “Jail the banksters; Help folks stay in their homes; Stop the buying of politicians; Corporations are not people; Support public education; Put the unemployed to work; Assist the less fortunate; Health care for all; Stop the wars; and Love our mother.”

I found these people in less than three hours at one rally. Are you listening media? If you can’t figure out what the people want, you might want to look into another line of work.

The demands are clear. People are struggling. They want jobs. They want equality. And they want us to debate the real issues.