[Street] Save the date! January 30 underwater rally + school of fish! (updates and preparations)

Katie Gradowski katie at occupyboston.org
Wed Jan 25 01:35:50 EST 2012


Hey all!

A quick update on plans for this Monday's rally -- final details are still
being worked out, but I wanted to give an update for anyone on these lists
who may want to be involved in the planning.     (CASA, signs,
screenprinting -- please read to the end for details that involve YOU!)

*Quick overview:   **On Monday, January 30 at noon, Occupy Boston will join
with City Life / Vida Urbana, Mass Uniting, and Occupy Wall Street to march
on Chase Bank, Fannie Mae, and Bank of America to demand principal
reduciton for underwater mortgages.  *  Participants are encouraged to come
dressed for the day!   Snorkels, swimwear, fish puppets, giant bubbles --
it's a themed rally, so if it's underwater, it works for this event!   It's
a whimsical theme, but an important issue -- many of the people who will be
joining are current homeowners who have, or are fighting foreclosure, and
who are battling to get principal reduction on underwater loans.

*Why this action?  *  *Across the country, 25% of mortgages are underwater,
meaning that the amount owed on the morgage exceeds the value of the
house.*  In this situation, a homeowner can make payments for years
without ever
owning anything.   Wall Street banks profited off a housing bubble that
left millions with underwater loans, then received trillions in taxpayer
bailouts.   Still, they want to keep homeowners on the hook for wildly
inflated prices ane evict families who can actually afford their homes at
real value.

This is the second action we're organizing with CLVU as a follow-up to
December's hugely successful Jedi HUD action  (which ended with a handful
of underage Occupiers wielding lightsabers and chasing HUD down the
street).   We are hoping to get a big turnout for this march, as one of our
first big collaborations with CLVU and MassUniting since hte eviction from
Dewey Square. * In addition to this action, there is also canvassing trip
planned for Revere on Saturday the 28t*h (going door-to-door of
soon-to-be-foreclosed homes and offering support to those who want it), *a
possible training with CLVU on Sunday the 29th for OB and Occupy Wall Street
*, and *ongoing auction protests and eviction defense actions* --- all of
which we need help with!     More details to come!

 If you'd like to get involved in these or other actions, please email me
privately at katie at occupyboston.org.

In the meantime, here's an update on what needs to happen for Monday!

***********************************************

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE IN PREP FOR THIS ACTION:

- *Giant fish puppets:*   I spoke to Sarah Peattie at the Puppeteer's
Collective about borrowing one or two of their fish puppets -- will follow
up with her tomorrow, this seems do-able and we can store them at Rita's
office near Dewey Square   (yeah!  big puppets!)

- *School of cardboard fish!*   In addition to big puppets, it would be
awesome to have a school of smaller fish.   The more the merrier!   it's
high time for another ubilding party  (and what's more fun than making
puppets together?)

An update on this:   I checked with Greg, and we will NOT be able to make
them during SAA.   CASA:  would you be interested in having your Saturday
meeting at Parts and Crafts in Somerville instead?   We have regular open
shop time on Saturday afternoons -- we could do it from 3-5 on saturday
 (and possibly get some kids involved in puppet-making!)

If that doesn't work, what do people think about checking with E5 for a two
or three hour block on Friday for building and painting puppets?   It's a
little trickier to get materials there, but we can definitely do it, and it
would be great to have a designated time for this so we can make a bunch
all at once.   Materials we need include:  cardboard!  duct tape!  scissors
and cutting tools!   paint, streamers, staple guns, glue!

- *Signs and screenprinting: * Would you be interested in doing a printing
session at the same time as the fish-making session?   (either on Friday or
Saturday?)   Again - if we do it on saturday in Somerville, we'll have a
big open space to spread out in, and the ability to make a mess -- so we
could do a BIG screenprinting day, for this and other actions

- *Other fun details:*   I'm working on getting bubbles.   Also, Second
Line Band may be coming to play -- need to work out final details with them
as well.   everything is nicer with a marching band!   (more on that to
come)

- *Outreach, outreach, outreach! *  We're hoping for a big turnout, so
please tell everyone you know.   I'll be blasting it once we get final
details tomorrow -- in the meantime, there's a facebook event!
http://www.facebook.com/events/317533048289164/?notif_t=event_invite
 Please share and help spread the word.

I think that's it!   PLEASE EMAIL ME if you would like to get involved!
(or if your working group wants to jump in and do something specific for
this action -- the more the merrier!)    It's still mostly me at this
point, and I would love to have other groups and individuals involved to
help make this an awesome and memorable event.

All best,

Katie


(p.s. Kevin, can you forward to the banking WG?)
-- 
Due to the present financial situation, the light at the end of the tunnel
will be switched off to save on electrical costs until further notice.
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