A Week In Review

It's been almost 1 month from the day Occupy Allentown went 24/7, and the occupation has grown to become an entity of it's own. Many people in the community thought that the first snow storm would send us packing back to our respective homes. It is my extreme pleasure to say that it did not!
While the Lehigh Valley was socked by 8 inches of wet snow, the occupation continued with business as usual. I believe we may have been better prepaired than the city in some respects. This is primarily due to the benevolent nature of our supporters.

Friday evening we blitzed Social networking sites detailing our need for things like shovels, ice melt, and warm clothing. All of those things arrived quickly! We were able to shovel and brush off tents on a regular basis, and none of the 12 structures at the occupation sustained any dammage. The city on the other hand is stil cleaning up downed limbs, and many people are still without power. This proved to be an exceptional trial run for what we all expect will be a messy winter. Even with all the work we were still able to laugh and play a bit, proving that it will not be ALL hard work and no play.

The weekend also brought some welcome guests. Mitch from; "Pennsylvania from below", an underground publication featuring articles that are pertinant to the lives and wellbeing of the residents of Pennsylvania came out to  bring the Lehigh Valley occupations into his tour of PA. They interviewed a number of us asking what brought us out, what we hoped to accomplish, why we thought we were part of the 99% and other questions. They were great to have around and wonderful to talk to. I am looking forward to seeing their publication of Occupy Pennsylvania. I will keep you all informed of the release!
We also had a few guests arrive in the past week from other occupations. They came from Occupy Dc and Occupy Wall Street, bringing us insite and information as to how things are run on the large scale. We appreciated the fresh energy, and the enthusiasm they brought, and renewed in us!

On a side note, we are still awaiting replies to the letter that was sent out to various members of the chamber of commerce, city council, the mayor, and the local press. We will continue to wait with baited breath to our call asking what they are going to do to help be the change.

Up coming events this weekend:

Saturday at 1 pm we will have a poetry workshop

Sunday we will be occupying the Allentown Halloween Parade. Details at: http://OccupyAllentownPA.org/#parade

Come out and visit!

- M.