pioneer square
The cocktail crowd, the church groups, and the hoi polloi converge to talk policy in Portland’s living room.
Posted by: Anne Adams on Oct 28, 2011 at 04:00PM
The name “Pink Martini” doesn’t exactly evoke the proletariat, and there’s no denying that Portland’s world-class cocktail band has long been welcomed into the graces of the moneyed elite, headlining Carnegie Hall, the Governor’s Ball, and MoMA, just to name a few. But as tension between haves and have-nots continues its nationwide groundswell, even those who sing for their supper are feeling compelled to pick a side. Belting barn-burners like “I Will Survive” and “Nine To Five,” as well as more patriotic fare like “America The Beautiful” and the event’s title song, “This Land Is Your Land,” Storm Large and Thomas Lauderdale led an Occupy Wall Street –inspired populist charge alongside members of the symphony* and Portland Gay Men’s Chorus, and a panel of civic and religious leaders.
As the first sing-along ebbed, Rabbi Emmanuel Rose began the conversation gently, consoling “a fractured, disheartened nation” and indicting those who dismiss the Occupy movement as a phase, those who decry and weaken America’s most compassionate institutions like social security and medicare, and advocates of corporate personhood. “If a corporation is a person, it’s a heartless person,” he said. “There’s a heartlessness that’s breaking the American spirit.” PDX Occupation organizer Carrie Medina tried to clarify the objectives of Occupy, saying, “we’re characterized as a leaderless movement, but we’re actually a movement of leaders. We need a system where greed is no longer rewarded, where profits are no longer prioritized over people. Join us.”
Imam Mikal Shabazz didn’t shy away from an intense characterization of the nation’s current circumstances: “We used to sing ‘We Shall Overcome,’ but now we stand in Pioneer Square admitting that we’ve been overcome. We’ve been bought and sold. We’re chattel, a product, a bottom line now.” After admonishing the crowd to think for themselves and make the right consumer decisions, he closed with an endearingly informal, “Peace be with you, I’ve got to roll.”
“Americans watch too many movies,” said AFL-CIO president Tom Chamberlain. “We’re always waiting for an elected official to come in on a white horse and save us. But Lincoln didn’t end slavery. Woodrow Wilson didn’t give women the right to vote. All great movements begin with the people. They may have all the money—but we’ve got all the people!”
Congressman Peter Defazio announced his, and Congressman Earl Blumenauer’s, “solidarity with Occupy Wall Street,” and admitted, “This movement has energized us. We can no longer tolerate privatized profits, with socialized losses.” He expressed high regard for Massachusetts senatorial candidate Elizabeth Warren and vowed that he and Blumenauer would fight to end the Bush tax cuts and impose new taxes on speculative Wall Street investment. The crowd cheered as he promised “No more ‘too big to fail.’” Blumenauer was greeted less warmly. As he attempted an opening joke about his and Lauderdale’s matching bow ties, an angry down-front group shook an oversized picture of his head and attempted to shout him down. Large stepped up and silenced them. “We disagree on a lot of issues,” Blumenauer admitted, “but we agree that it’s time to stop the war against the middle class.” Suggesting that activists continue to make conscious buying and banking choices, he claimed “Portland can be a beacon, and we need it now more than ever.”
*Since the Oregon Symphony sent a flood of PR memos to explicitly disassociate their organization from this rally, Large and Lauderdale referred to their members only as “excellent musicians you might be able to see at The Schnitz sometime.”
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