The Occupation in Springfield

I was in Springfield, IL last week for the ISBA Small Firm and Solo Practitioner Conference. It was a rip-roaring Lincoln-y good time, but I did find time to occupy the State Capitol.

Under the Dome, as a tourist, observer

On Thursday morning, I went to the legislative session and witnessed a scene.

The Senate started on time, but after some banter about who's working how hard, they immediately adjourned for committee meetings.

The House started late, but hit the ground running. The place is chaos and no one appears to be listening to anyone else, but I later saw that they were.

Eighth District Rep. La Shawn Ford got up and asked his colleagues to observe a moment for the people at Occupy Chicago. Boos and jeers came from the Republican side. The Democratic side was silent. Then, one of the Republican reps who I could not identify (an older heavy woman who ate throughout the session) took her mic. She said she that she would never acknowledge the people at Occupy because they were all homeless people who have organized on the Internet.

Rep. Ford again got up and said that he believed that it was the legislature's job to listen to the people. That was met by more jeers from the Republican side and more silence from the Democratic side. Ford sat down and they moved on to a really important bill to allow folks with liquor licenses to run for mayor by allowing other city officials to choose the liquor commissioner if the mayor has a liquor licence.

As Part of the 99% on the Outside, Looking Into our Own House

Whose House? Our House!

On Saturday, I joined a couple of hundred people at Occupy Springfield. News reports said there were approximately 300 people at the event. Considering how deserted Springfield looked the entire rest of the time, that seemed like a lot of people. Springfield does look like it needs to address its economy with empty stores and a non-existent night life.

We marched from the Capitol to the Federal District Court, to Mark Kirk's fake Springfield Office that he never occupies, off to Chase Bank and then back to the Capitol. There, we evicted the lobbyists and legislators from the People's House.

The Springfield police decided to be smart and stay away. I didn't see a single officer or squad car and there was no need for them. The fire department was out, but they appeared to be just passing by to answer a call elsewhere.

The entire event was peaceful and orderly from start to finish. The organizers would not let a participant jaywalk or litter. I met a lot of nice people from all walks of life. There were young people from the universities at Champaign/Urbana and Bloomington/Normal. There were several women about my age from the Springfield area and there were senior men and women. No one was dirty, smelly, stoned and I noticed no hippies from days gone by.

There were no anti-Semitic signs, I saw no guns (unlike the tea parties) and there was no mob-mentality sort of feeling.Some of the signs were fairly creative, my favorite was a Monopoly game board (right). When the organizers spoke, everyone listened a lot more than they listen to each other inside the Capitol on a work day.

A colleague from the bar association who joined me in occupying Springfield mentioned to me that he felt the tone of the event was set by the invitation--addressed to "The Ladies and Gentlemen of Illinois". It was cleverly made in the Victorian style in keeping with the Lincoln theme of the city. I like to think old Abe himself was smiling down on us knowing a thing or two about what the racism and hate of can do to a political party and to a country.

A copy of the flyer was posted on the door of Aaron Schock's office, but surprisingly he failed to show up. Maybe he was not feeling gentlemanly.

I made a sign for myself thinking about my senior and disabled clients, that we should not abandon seniors and the disabled to war and corruption. My friend took a picture of me with my sign and I"ll post it when he emails it to me.

The people I spoke to at the event were concerned about the financial industry getting away with serious crimes that harmed the economy, unemployment and underemployment. The students were worried about college debt and employment prospects. One man I spoke to felt his generation from the 1960s and 1970s let the country down. He said there were many advances, but then they were mostly rolled back starting in the 80s.

Thanks to the Ladies and Gentlemen of Springfield and surrounds for welcoming the Chicagoans. Here's a group picture I took with my phone: