I take particular umbrage at the casual dismissal of the encampments as a "fetishization" of the occupied spaces. Place is sacred. Place tells us we have somewhere to stand. People establish sacred relationship with spaces, which strengthens the roots of Occupy. More importantly, taking up space is what ignites the imagination, and gives the larger movement outside the camps a touchstone, something to return to.
When Solar Cross Temple organized to donate portable toilets and washstands to Occupy Oakland, people felt excited to send tangible support to those who were willing and able to camp out in the cold to lend a voice to this process of change. The camps also remind us that this movement is not going away. Occupy will continue—rain, snow, or sun—and campers are willing to become a rallying point for those of us who show up at General Assemblies, put pressure on abusive corporations and unresponsive politicians, and those who are finding ways to work together to form more viable, less isolated communities.
As a Pagan minister, for whom the sacredness of earth and sky is paramount to my sense of spiritual connection, I comprehend the importance of place in my bones. I would hope that as a Jew, Rabbi Lerner, you would celebrate the tent encampments as sacred sukkot in which people displaced by foreclosure and unemployment dwell, becoming symbols of a larger awakening and the shaking off of collective bonds of oppression.
If the camps are forced to go away, they will live on in our minds, having taken root there.
". . . this idea cannot be evicted."
Sincerely,
T. Thorn Coyle, Solar Cross Temple and Morningstar Mystery School
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