Today in Tampa, approximately 300 people gathered for the 2nd (or 3rd) Occupy Tampa event, held at Lykes Gaslight Park downtown.
CL will have a full report from Arielle Stevenson on this blog soon. This reporter wandered across the street from Kennedy Boulevard after leaving today's City Council meeting and spoke to a handful of those in attendance.
A 19-year old USF student who only wanted to be identified as Evan said he was "extremely dissatisfied" with what's happening in the country right now. He had a sign referencing the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Citizen's United that allowed corporations to have the same First Amendment rights to engage in political spending as people.
"Rather than sit around and complain about it, I wanted to do something about it," he said. Citing the Citizens United case, he said "individuals can't afford lobbyists. They can't put the money that corporations can behind a candidate." He said he wasn't sure who he would vote next year for president, but when pressed confessed it would probably be Barack Obama, though he expressed discontent with the two-party political system.
This article appears in Oct 6-12, 2011.