Occupy Houston, Today (UPDATE: And Beyond, Too…)

UPDATE: Believe it or not, some of yesterday’s Occupy Houston protesters spent last night in Hermann Square Plaza — after the Mayor herself declared that the City couldn’t evict them — and now they’re keeping the protest going, shifting things westward to Eleanor Tinsley Park (since, y’know, the Bayou City Art Festival is currently setting up right where yesterday’s march ended). March on over with them at 4PM today; see details on the OH site. Virtual high-five, y’all…

I’m going to dive (briefly) into the political ocean here, folks, so be warned… In case you have yet to see it, today marked the beginning of Houston’s very own Occupy Together-themed protest, Occupy Houston, up in downtown.

The protest is meant to show solidarity with the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests, and while yeah, I wasn’t online at the thing’s 6:30AM(!) kickoff time, after which the assembled folks marched through downtown past the J.P. Morgan Chase Tower and over to City Hall, I am wholeheartedly there in spirit.

I’ve been reading a bit about history lately, particularly a book called The Big Burn; it’s primarily about the creation of the the U.S. Forest Service and creation of the first National Forests, but entwined in that was President Theodore Roosevelt and his fight against the insanely corrupt big businessmen of his day. It’s been a little eerie, reading it and noticing parallels between then and now.

At any rate, the protest’s still going on over in Hermann Square Plaza, and happily, it looks like there’s a decent-sized crowd (especially for usually-apathetic H-town). Check out the live feed to see (although it looks like it hasn’t updated in a while), check the status updates on the Occupy Houston FB page, or heck, head on down yourself and stand up for the 99% of America that can’t afford to buy its way in Congress…