Occupy Protests Come to the Eastside

More than 100 people held up signs and shrugged off the cold for two hours Saturday, Nov. 19, at the intersection of 228th and Inglewood Hill Road in Sammamish, showing their support for the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Here, the demonstrators were unlike the stereotypical disenfranchised young adults that have come to be associated with OWS demonstrations in cities around the country, but were the middle class of Sammamish, Issaquah, and surrounding Eastside cities, said Patricia Martin, who organized the peaceful demonstration through the political website MoveOn.org.

Many, however, said they were very concerned for the future of their adult children, who are struggling to find work or simply not better off than their parents and with little hope for longterm security in their futures.

“My daughter can’t get a job,” said Sammamish resident Kris Jessett.

Lucille Barnard, also of Sammamish, echoed the sentiment. “I have two sons and their futures are not so great. Things have to change; the middle class is dying and there’s no way up.”

Like many OWS demonstrations, the list of specific grievances varied from person to person: concerns about crony capitalism, an unfair tax system, corporations being treated as individuals, and the future of Medicare and Social Security among the myriad concerns of demonstrators.

However, a common thread of dissatisfaction with the imbalance of perceived benefits to large corporations and the need for a new social contract that empowers citizens to improve their lives ran through the crowd.

“I am outraged” that bank funds have not been regulated, said Jeff Wedgwood of Issaquah. Wedgwood said he’s also frustrated that long-term issues such as dealing with economic recovery and environmental issues don’t get addressed because political terms are short and corporate CEOs typically aren’t in their positions longer than a five to seven years.

Martin said she was heartened by the large local turnout, which she said included at least 105 people, 90 percent of whom were from Sammamish and Issaquah, though there were also people from as far away as Lake Forest Park, Mercer Island, Duvall, and North Bend.

“It’s more than I imagined,” she said. 

There appeared to be support for the demonstrators from passersby, with cars honking their horns and shouting support. One man brought several dozen donuts out to the protestors, Martin said.

Martin said the demonstrators in Sammamish come largely from middle-class backgrounds; she herself was a teacher for 43 years, she said, and now lives much as she did at the start of her career after her retirement funds were decimated in the recession.

“Our big point is we want to support Occupy, and our agenda in a place this doesn’t usually happen,” Martin said, to help demonstrate that it’s not a fringe movement. 

MoveOn.org has its own list of 10 agenda items it proposes as a “contract for the American dream,” which its members displayed on signs.

David Spring of North Bend is planning a meeting at the Sammamish Library on Jan. 21 to discuss a proposal that would create a public bank in Washington state.