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. <\/em><\/p>\nIt wasn\u2019t difficult to find lifelong Republican Karen Ford at Occupy Monterey\u2019s rally on Saturday. I simply told the crowd that I was interested in interviewing people who\u2019ve never been involved in activism or an action like this before and five people stood in line to talk. <\/p>\n
People clearly want to tell their stories. When do you ever hear people like Karen Ford in the national media? A self-described lifelong Republican, Karen has met Ronald Reagan and was good friends with Pete Wilson. She used to be an employment lawyer who represented multi-national corporations; today she says she represents humans.<\/p>\n
She says the United States and the Republican Party have been hijacked. \u201cYou can\u2019t have a decent society where just a few people earn a whole lot of money and everybody else is starving to death.\u201d Karen says she was impressed with the Tea Party for two seconds and then it got hijacked. <\/p>\n
Karen Ford defies all of the stale stereotypes we\u2019re still hearing in the media. She decided to get involved with the Occupy Movement for the very reasons it\u2019s being criticized by the talking heads, namely because there is no official set of demands.<\/p>\n
She says bringing together a coalition of people with different points of view is extremely powerful. The common thread is that they all believe the current situation is untenable and the ultimate goal is to work together on solutions. That\u2019s what got her to attend the Occupy Monterey rally and get involved. She says she probably won\u2019t block traffic and get arrested, but she plans to stay in the movement. <\/p>\n
People like Karen deserve to be on the cable shows. The problem is, the corporations that own the networks love to perpetuate the predictable liberal\/conservative divide. It\u2019s safe. Bringing on guests who challenge the fundamental system and defy the stale stereotypes is not allowed. <\/p>\n
In addition to Karen, I met Joan Channon, a restaurant owner who employs 35 people. She says she\u2019s in the top five percent and is happy to pay more taxes. She hasn\u2019t been involved in activism since the 60s. She says simply seeing like-minded people take to the streets was enough to get her involved. <\/p>\n
Retired teacher Charmaine Felton is another first timer. She\u2019s spoken out at a few school board meetings, but she\u2019s never attended a rally. She says the excitement of the movement pushed her to get involved. She\u2019s also tired of the vilification of teachers. She believes teachers need to take back their profession by forcefully using their voices and taking to the streets. She said, \u201cWe\u2019ve had enough.\u201d <\/p>\n
And then I met 25-year-old Spencer at Occupy Santa Cruz. His boss, who ran a construction firm, couldn\u2019t get a loan to pay his bills, so he had to let Spencer go. Spencer traveled to Las Vegas and Seattle hoping to find construction work, but had no luck. So he came back to Santa Cruz, ran out of money, couldn\u2019t afford to keep paying rent, and decided to set up camp. It\u2019s been challenging, but he says it\u2019s been an incredible experience.<\/p>\n
Occupy Monterey and Occupy Santa Cruz, like so many movements in small towns across the country, are both growing. The excitement I saw at Saturday\u2019s rally in Monterey and at the camp in Santa Cruz was palpable. It\u2019s fairly easy to find information about the Occupy movements in major cities, but it\u2019s rare to hear what\u2019s going on in small towns. They are just as important.<\/p>\n
Watch video interviews:<\/p>\n
Lifelong Republican Karen Ford
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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. <\/em><\/p>\n