I am actually from Occupy Olympia so I cannot speak directly to Occupy Seattle, but Sable Verity's Oct. 19 column leaves the impression that the Occupy Together movement is just a bunch of kids sitting around in tents.
We are a instead a cross section of many ages, and we are building networks and picketing banks with leaflets and encouraging their customers to move their money to credit unions.
Ms. Verity accused us of being ethnically elite at best and racist at worst. We here in Olympia did ask the Squaxins for permission to use their sacred area for our occupation village. We received their blessing and many of them have joined us.
As for our "leaderless movement," Ms. Verity again displays her rather alarming level of ignorance. This is more rhetoric than fact and everyone knows it. Of course leaders will emerge. In order to emerge from a horizontal power structure, though, they must rise upon their own merit. When you must convince nearly everyone before action is taken, then patience, intelligence, eloquence and compassion become important factors.
As for Ms. Verity extolling the virtues of the Arab Spring in Egypt; I would point out that the Egyptian military simply replaced a civilian dictatorship with a military dictatorship. Was this the result of their "clearly defined leadership" as delineated by their "specified spokespeople"?
I have been saying for decades that the only way to fix this mess is for a mass movement to take to the streets. We now have one.
Dana Walker Occupy Olympia