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 need to last until the Equinox, to usher in the American Spring!
• March 20th coincides with the proposed Convergence on Washington.
• 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.

I didn't expect to like this, but I do. Suggestion: I know we were planning on re-planting the greenway on Earth day next year. That's over a month after we would decamp if this passes. I would like us to re-plant the greenway closer to our decampment date, and make that part of this proposal so it shows that we are truly going to put it back to how it was before we used it, if not better. Since the 20th is a Friday, we could make the next two days be days devoted to improving/re-planting the space. - Katie S

Opponents of the encampment could bring up the argument, "Why wait until March 20th, what is the purpose of letting the encampment stay between now and then?". Since most of our opponents see no reason for the encampment as it is, and then having us announce that we are willing to leave March 20th, they will see no reason for us to stay even that long. We have declared that the purpose of our encampment is to be a symbol of protest, and that that protest would continue until sufficient change has taken place such that the protest was no longer needed. If we announce a plan to de-camp on a certain date, without having fulfilled our original stated purpose of having the camp, it really will appear that we are simply giving in to pressure - and if we are giving in, why until March 20th to give in. In short, by announcing a departure date that is unrelated to changes in government and society having taken place to the satisfaction of the 99%, we are in essence "changing our minds" about why the encampment was created in the first place - and this will give our opponents a fair argument to make when they say "If you are no longer staying 'as long as it takes to accomplish change', why stay any longer at all?". - Roger D

^ Roger: this proposal doesn't mean we don't set up camp else where, just that we decamp at Dewey. I get what you're saying and this will certainly be brought up by someone at the discussion (I'm going to the discussion today, and will bring up these concerns). But, part of our goal of encampment has been realized: getting the conversation started is a huge f***** deal. Now we could use that and move on from there." - Katie S

^Katie: Agreed, 100%! I just wanted to bring up the point I made because I know how our opponents will view this, they WILL try to use our own words and intentions against us - guaranteed. I strongly believe that we need to "beef up" this proposal with the statement that we do not intend to "un-Occupy", but simply move elsewhere from Dewey Square (and make it very clear where it is we are moving to). Having that "elsewhere" defined before we move forward with this proposal is very important - IMHO the two must be "bundled" together as a single intention. -Roger D