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About 30 people showed up in support of the new Occupy Bowling Green protest during the general assembly meeting Saturday October 22nd. The assembly discussed how they will operate as a group and gave their reasons for being there. Everyone's reason for joining Occupy BG is different, said Taylor Scribner, one of the original organizers of the protest. Scribner has been a part of Occupy Toledo since day one, more than two weeks, with her boyfriend Gilbert Bentley and said one day she felt a responsibility to start it in her home town. Bentley is one of the original organizers of the protest. "I agreed with a lot of messages I heard individuals at Occupy Wall Street say ... and I realized it is essential for occupations to start in little towns as well," he said. Occupations should not just be centralized to one city but every town, regardless of size, because the presence is just as important, Bentley said. "Everybody has their own grievances and it's important that we make a difference in our own town first before going onto a global scale," he said. Michael Hale, an ethnic studies professor at the University said his reason for attending was his motivation of both anger and hope. Hale said, to see his students in class that have so much potential hope and knowing how hard it is to find a job today just breaks his heart. It's impossible nowadays to be guaranteed a good job, he said. People aren't looking for handouts, Scribner said, but when an average Joe works 40 hours a week and still can't afford to get by that's just wrong. "I'm here more out of concern," graduate student Jared Brown said. "I'm a child of unions, my father was the president of one and everything he fought for is being put at risk by the decisions being made by the government without the disenfranchised members of society in mind." Clare Lemke, a graduate assistant at the University, said she's excited about the movement. "It presents an opportunity for people to come and support the community," Lemke said. In fact, local businesses have shown their support for the Occupy BG movement. Scribner said most local businesses have given them support in terms of allowing them to put up their flyers to giving them a place to meet to donating food. Grounds For Thought is among one of those supporting businesses. Sunday morning, they provided the protesters with donuts for breakfast. "Grounds For Thought is all about the community and committed to helping serve the community," said store manager Kate Dauphin. "We are proud to support the efforts of Occupy BG," said owner Kelly Wicks. Along with the local businesses, other community members are helping support the movement. People who can't come and protest or camp out find other ways to support the protesters, Bentley said, just this morning a family brought us oatmeal for breakfast. While the occupation is still in its infancy, the assembly discussed and voted on how they would operate and govern themselves along with how they would interact with the administration and the public. The general assembly created committees to deal with a wide range of aspects from a committee to educate the public on the occupy movement to a legal committee that would deal with the administration. They operate on a 90 percent consensus rate and discussions and proposals are facilitated by anyone person of the group, there is no set leader. There can be no leader because everyone has an equal say in the assembly meetings, so essentially everyone is the leader, Bentley said. The assembly is a place where people of any background or standing can come and express their opinion and educate each other in order to form stronger opinions based on those discussions, he said Everyone has their own view of how they want society to change and the groups establish that through proposals the people bring up during the meetings, he said. Occupy BG plans to have future rallies and marches with one march scheduled for this Friday on the banks in order to make people aware of the homes being foreclosed by the banks and to encourage them to join credit unions. Occupy BG is a peaceful protest and the groups want to cooperate with both the public and the police force, Bentley said. Police Chief Bradford Conner said there have been no reports of problems with the protesters and as long as they don't infringe on the rights of others, he sees no need to interfere. If a complaint does present itself, the police will work to resolve it with both parties, Conner said. The protesters want to be on good terms with everyone, despite differing opinions, Bentley said, If you notice, they swept the common area shared by a sorority and helped them clean up after their fundraiser. The Occupy BG movement plans to operate 24/7 indefinitely. If you want to join the Occupy BG movement, attend a general assembly meeting, which are held every day, twice a day at noon and 7 p.m. in the alleyway across from Reverend's or check out their Facebook page at facebook.com/occupybg

• Category

• Release Date

  Oct 28, 2011

• Runtime

  07:56