Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Occupy Olympia snarls special session (with added snark)
As Washington state legislators struck the gavel Monday to begin the special session called by the governor, an estimated 3,000 people rallied around the capital building, protesting further cuts to social services provided by the state.
Later, as hearings were beginning to look into ways to cut $2 billion from the state's budget, protesters with the Occupy movement filled the capital building's rotunda, shutting a budget meeting down and leading to their arrests.
But before things got ugly and state troopers dragged protestors out one by one, Brian Zylstra, blogging for Secretary of State Sam Reed, gave his readers a taste of the action — with some snarky commentary.
"Like all good protesters, they brought with them lots of chants," Zylstra wrote on Reed's blog, From Our Corner. "Some were catchy, but a few sounded clunky and needed some work."
Aside from the usual Occupy chants about being the 99 percent and getting sold out by banks, the protesters provided Zylstra an opportunity for some comic relief:
"Can't you hear us?" they chanted, to which Zylstra replied, "From our nearby office, YES!"
And, when protesters chanted, “Occupy," Zylstra added, "With Thanksgiving apparently still on his mind, one co-worker here thought they were yelling, 'Pumpkin pie!'"
With a few weeks left in the session, we wonder if Zylstra will occupy us with more of his jokes. Or, if they'll wear thin.
