The Occupy Wall Street Protesters at Zuccotti Park Should Open Their Kitchen to Feed the Homeless, Not Publicly Spread Anti-Homeless People Sentiment, Which Hurts Our Cause.

I was shocked to hear the kitchen volunteers at Occupy Wall Street are organizing to have homeless people prevented from eating the free food.

Would Robin Hood steal bread from the rich and only give the bread to the middle class? Or would he also give it to the homeless? That’s right, he made sure the most impoverished ate as well.

Here is the link to the New York Post article on this development : http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/zuccotti_hell_kitchen_i5biNyYYhpa8MSYIL9xSDL#ixzz1bzhgohUN

This is such a dangerous development on so many levels.

1-      The message this sends is that of anti-homeless people sentiment. Isn’t the OWS movement about helping people unemployed, disenfranchised, vulnerable and hungry?

2-      This goes back to the airs of classism in the home camp I have witnessed firsthand. As a drummer, I encountered a lot of anti-drummer and anti-hippie sentiment from the media and even by some people down at Zuccotti Park. So I sympathize with the homeless community which now seems to be the next community people are turning on.

3-      There is an overflowing stock of donated food in storage, not mention hundreds of thousands of dollars in the OWS account so I’m sure we can not only afford to feed the homeless, but have the compassion to as well.

4-      I feel this is misguided anger on the part of the kitchen volunteers. If they want more help, they should ask for it, maybe do more outreach to get additional volunteers? Perhaps then they will not feel so overworked and then will remember why this movement started in the first place.

5-      Homeless people are also part of the 99%. Times are hard. If the 1% escalate with their corporate greed and corruption, there’s a chance that many more of us will be homeless. Do we want to frown upon helping the most destitute when they need us and this movement the most?

I respect and value all the hard work the kitchen volunteers do, but I feel this should have been handled internally. Now this looks like a public ridicule and judgment of the homeless community.  Can the occupiers who share in the kitchen volunteers desire to have the food line restricted please be more mindful of the words they use when airing out their grievances to the media? Many perceive this turning on the homeless as hypocritical and classist.

Again, would Robin Hood steal bread from the rich and only give the bread to the middle class? Or would he also give it to the homeless? That’s right, he made sure the homeless ate as well.