Mayor's Office Response

[William Oetjen]

Hi Folks,

Occupy Burlington Direct Action Working Group sent a letter last Friday to Mayor Weinberger inviting him to meet and discuss with us our use of public space.

The following message is his response, received on Wednesday, May 23.

Dear Occupy Burlington General Assembly members,

Thank you for reaching out to Mayor Weinberger for a meeting. This has long been on his mind, and we are glad to have this email address as a means of communicating with you to set this up. Due to the many demands on his time and our need to schedule in advance, the soonest opening on his calendar is Tuesday,  May 29 from 2:30-3:30 pm. We would like to offer City Hall Conference Room 12 as a meeting space. Please confirm by reply email if this time and location will work for you.

 

Best,

Jessica

 

Jessica Nordhaus

Office of the Mayor

City of Burlington

*****************************************************************************************************************************************

Wednesday afternoon, at our usual meeting time, the Direct Action WG consensed to accept the offered meeting time.  We also consensed to draft a statement that we will deliver to the mayor.  First, we will present it to the General Assembly for amendments and consensus.   The statement will basically explain our need to use public space for outreach and communication with the broader community.  We intend to also outline the conditions under which we intend to occupy public space.  In return, we will expect the city departments to respect our autonomy.

Our goal is to meet our needs for outreach and communication, while maintaining a positive relationship within the community.  We believe that it is possible to meet that goal and spare ourselves and the city unnecessary expense of resources that can be put to better use.

This could be a very important step for Occupy Burlington.   At the very least, it signifies that the established political structure recognizes our resilience and our power.  It could also have far-reaching implications for our long-term actions, including:

holding banks accountable to our standards for serving the community;

holding police and school departments accountable for racial equity;

attaining affordable universal healthcare; 

securing access to reproductive healthcare;

demonstrating solidarity with, and supporting social movements that serve the needs of the 99% (Quebec student strike, Anti-Nato actions in Chicago, Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC, Occupy VT statewide GA, etc.)...

Your contribution to this, our initial statement to the mayor, is important  -  magnified through the lens of history.   We need to hear every voice at the next GA. 

Please make every effort to contribute  -  Saturday, Noon (right after we close Citizen's Bank), in City Hall Park.   Please spread the word!  We need the whole 99%!

Yours, in Solidarity, 

Bill Oetjen

Direct Action Working Group

(PS - get in touch with everyone you can, let them know that you understand how important this is.)

"Posterity, who are to reap the blessings, will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors."

Abigail Adams, 1777

[vtener...@gmail.com]

Thanks Bill, very well said. -Brad

[Bill Oetjen]

Thnx Brad.

We try.

[William Oetjen]

Please to do so!

Some important stuff to be worked out at this GA, this is one that we really hope will be well-attended.

Again, the more voices, the better.

Saturday, Noon.  City Hall Park

Or, why not show up an hour early and help close Citizens Bank  -  Burlington's most bailed out bank.

Just sayin.

Bill

On May 24, 2012, at 9:53 PM, Mia wrote:

Forwarded! Thank you for your incredibly hard work on behalf of the 100%! :)

[Alexander Percivul Ruhe]

Dear Bill and Occupy friends,

 

        Please included a definite need for a 24-7 visible outdoor gathering space for a peacably living and sleeping Occupy Democracy vigil !!! Our stand is not an issue that can be taken in anyway lightly. We can not afford to let the Banking Cartel take over our Democracy, even though it has largely done so already. Such  unbelievably massive power in the hands of the few must be 24-7 demanded to step down into "non-extreme reasonable degrees of amassed wealth".

       I tell you true, if this is not a demand that is voiced by our Burlington movement, I will leave the movement, as I already have, to a degree, as I await a more full on Occupation to take place. Much of my absense is work related and life adventures ...but soon I will be free to commit to full-on ...or something else, like the mountain forests. Quebec is doing wonders ...can't we get the mayor to see how very important we are for giving voice to something he can't, but knows is extremely important. If we are to go down in history as visibly demanding a halt to extreme wealth in a few hands we need a real 24-7 visible peacably living and sleeping encampment, that mirrors the encampments of the World's poor disenfranchised people, from the exploitations of unaccountible corportate greed.

 

    Thank you for your considerations,

'         SunSeerly, Peace Rockn Steady,

                                AleSonder PS Ruhe ~*~    Ecotopia Now

--
ELFkind Production working for Ecotopia Systems, SunSeerly, AleSonder PS Ruhe

[Bill Oetjen]

Hi, Folks,

I just received this from Mayor Weinberger's assistant.

Thought I should pass it along.

Begin quote :

Occupy Burlington, The Mayor is looking forward to meeting with 4-6 of your members tomorrow, Tuesday 5/29, from 2:30-3:30 pm in Conference Room 12 on the first floor of City Hall. He has asked several leaders in City government to join him: BPD Deputy Chief Andi Higbee; BFD Chief Seth Laskar, and a representative from the Department of Parks and Recreation. Either Mike Kanarick or I will also be there acting as Assistant to the Mayor.

Until tomorrow, Jessica

End quote.

[Stephen Marshall]

On 5/28/2012 11:42 PM, Bill Oetjen wrote:
>
> Hi, Folks,
>
> I just received this from Mayor Weinberger's assistant.
>
> Thought I should pass it along.
>
> Begin quote :
>
> Occupy Burlington, The Mayor is looking forward to meeting with 4-6 of
> your members tomorrow, Tuesday 5/29, from 2:30-3:30 pm in Conference
> Room 12 on the first floor of City Hall. He has asked several leaders
> in City government to join him: BPD Deputy Chief Andi Higbee; BFD
> Chief Seth Laskar, and a representative from the Department of Parks
> and Recreation. Either Mike Kanarick or I will also be there acting as
> Assistant to the Mayor.
>
> Until tomorrow, Jessica
>
> End quote.
>

Proposal: meet at city hall park at 2:00 PM to select a delegation.
Since they didn't offer this time, or allow enough time for us to work
out a response, we send the number we want to,

--
This reply email has been edited to reduce volume and to simplify reading it.

Stephen Marshall
11 Hungerford Terrace (out back)
Burlington Vermont 05401
Dispolemic.Blogspot.Com
802-861-2316 Landline
802-922-1446 Cell

[Alexander Percivul Ruhe]

Oh well gonna miss this one, working School~bus driving today : )

          Please continue the message of how important it is that We represent the voice of Democracy that the mayor, and people in positions of sub-serviant jobs, can not easily give voice to. Someone noble, calm and friendly with the feeling we need a 24/7 living and sleeping peace vigil encampment to represent the very dire state of affairs, contingent in our government being ursuped by a totalitarian Bank Cartel, of super extreme wealth please relate to Miro, as i did before, that we can either make History as standing for true Democratic values or disappear as small symbolic isolated meetings.

          Please stress the point that all around the World sister encampments exist in poverty out of nessecity because of our corporate exploitations. And we can practically establish and maintain a clean, orderly, and creatively wonderful model camp village, much like all the other city condoned encampments, like the Cots event tents, the circus tents, the arts and crafts shows ...only we will be helping and healing the poor and concerned citizens of our noble idealist Vermont to come together in Peace to defend Democracy when we ARE most needed.

        The Moyor can join Bernie Sanders as being a World Wide acclaimed fair-minded creative and honestly idealistic Social~Democracy hero ...or he can defend temporary small time 1% greedy interests and go to the karmic World resulting from cowardice when loving gathering for Democracy is what is most needed. Thank you for representing this aspect of the Occupy Movement. I trust the 6-8 people who do represent us will remember the broad-based issues of our inter-national movement, and not just specialize in a few isolated demand issues. 

           SunSeerly, AleSonder PS Ruhe o the ELFvenKind

[Alexander Percivul Ruhe]

[Bill Oetjen]

Hi ALL,

We already worked out our delegation last week.    We just haven't told them that.

Bill