Princeton's Chilly Reception for Occupy March

by: Rosi Efthim

Wed Nov 16, 2011 at 03:19:18 PM EST

Didn't catch this Washington Post piece from a few days ago, about the OWS marchers who came through New Jersey a few days ago on their way to D.C. Apparently, they got a pretty chilly reception when they came through Princeton.

Washington Post reporter Elizabeth Flock is embedded with a group of occupiers, who are now through NJ and into Delaware. They plan a D.C. arrival Nov. 23, the day Congress considers extending the Bush tax cuts.

What happened outside the Princeton bar, after the fold.

Rosi Efthim :: Princeton's Chilly Reception for Occupy March

Flock writes that Princeton student Whitney Blodgett jeered at the marchers as they passed the bar he was in, shouting "We're the one percent!" and "Get a job!". Blodgett: "The fact is, America is a society that values skill. If I was in their position and didn't have a skill or job, I guess I'd do the same thing." Princeton's a breeding ground for plenty of the Masters of the Universe young Wall Street scions that Tom Wolfe wrote about in Bonfire of the Vanities. Maybe Blodgett's a little sheltered, got to forgive him that. But only one person came out to support the OWS marchers in Princeton, a freshman girl. Despite Blodgett's assumptions, occupiers are not without skills: Flock reports on the jobs the marchers have or recently had: EMT, playwright, writer, truck driver, executive assistant and photographer. Some are indeed unemployed, some are students, including a technology student who dropped out because he couldn't afford the tuition.

(By the way, there are no NJ schools listed in the Occupy Colleges national event tomorrow. If you're organizing, hit us up: contact@bluejersey.com)

Bill Orr covered the marchers' very different reception at Occupy Trenton's new Tent City, and the extraordinary scene of Occupy's august First Amendment lawyer Bennet Zurofsky sitting down to serenade the occupiers. Zurofsky and the ACLU team of lawyers he's heading go back to court for the occupiers on December 19. The Trenton occupation is still limited in size, but the people involved are committed and now in Day 41. Special events like the marchers' arrival and a Veterans Day walk around Trenton bring out allies, friends and the intrigued. Tomorrow may be another such day, as Bill Orr wrote this morning.

More than 100 people are signed up for the Jobs Rally Thursday at noon outside the State House. It will draw active people together with Occupy Trenton, MoveOn, Coalition for Peace Action and labor.

In addition, OT is joining forces with the potentially huge anti-fracking rally November 21, ahead of the Delaware River Basin Commission fracking vote Nov. 21 in Trenton. More on that later.