Spring Equinox

My name is Sage. I am camped at Dewey Square. After serious thought, and countless conversations with many very thoughtful people, I am making the following proposal:

"Occupy Boston declares that we will decamp from Dewey Square on the Spring Equinox, the 20th of March 2012."

I expect that this will generate a lot of discussion. I have many reasons for proposing this:

• Politically, I think that it is necessary to show in good faith that the encampment on Dewey Square is indeed temporary, and not a permanent settlement extending into the future.
• We have many people with no other place to stay, and stability of place is very important for them through the Winter. By declaring a residential end date on the first day of Spring, we can negotiate a stability to our camp while we are here.
• We can negotiate bringing in Winter tents as a condition for declaring a residential end date.
• We are not "ceding" the ground, but "seeding" the ground -- we will go off in 1,000 directions, like dandelion seeds on the wind.
• This is not giving up. Change is part of life. This is moving on to Occupy Everywhere!
• We need a new creative protest means, and we have the Winter to think of it, to excite and get into the public consciousness with our memes of social justice!
• Spring is a great time to grow the grass!
• This may help our court case, if we have another hearing. Part of the City argument against us was that we are a potentially permanent encampment.

There are many possible amendments that could be made:

• We could tie decamping to a condition, such as the City granting us an unused space where we could create a homeless shelter by a new model, where it is run mainly by homeless and formerly homeless people, so that it has a different feeling than the standard shelters.
• We could state another condition, that we work with the Greenway on creating a sculpture park in the theme of tents, that provide a lean-to shelter where people can get out of the rain when needed, and a gazebo-type forum where people can hold public meetings on civil topics.

Schedule of meetings for this proposal

Tuesday, 6 December 7:00 PM -- I announced this proposal on the priority proposal process at the General Assembly. I announced the meeting schedule as well. Wednesday, 7 December 11:00 AM -- Camp General Assembly will have a discussion section on this topic. Wednesday, 7 December 6:00 PM -- Meet at Gandhi statue for an hour-long open discussion meeting. Thursday, 8 December 7:00 PM -- I will announce this again at the General Assembly. Friday, 9 December 7:00 PM -- Consensus building meeting on the proposal. Meet at Gandhi statue once again. Sunday, 11 December 5:00 PM -- The actual proposal will be brought to General Assembly.

I hope this will be enough time and forums for the proposal to be discussed, with input from all.

- Sage (cell: 617.406.8842)

Discussion on Wiki Page

Please add discussion and comments on this proposal here, if you wish.