I’m not sure which was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Perhaps it was losing a job when I felt that giving me the support I needed would have been the better choice. Maybe it was being passed over for jobs that I thought were sure things. Or maybe it is the increasingly popular idea that jobs are obsolete.

Maybe it’s that my bank insists on charging me for the use of my own money from an account that doesn’t have a whole lot to begin with (while they’ve gone back on that, it’s hard to trust that they won’t try again later.) Maybe it is the ridiculous institution of charging overdraft fees instead of simply blocking a transaction entirely which, while overdraft fees without consent were prohibited by law in 2009, simply inspires these institutions to seek out new ways of gouging their consumers for the use of what belongs to them.

Maybe it is health care. A dislocated shoulder costs $3923 to fix, and given that I dislocate mine regularly and in stupid ways (such as, for instance, getting off of buses and closing doors) I don’t like losing a significant amount of money to go back to a life without significant pain and restriction.

Maybe it is that, on October 30, 38 people in Austin got arrested. According to consistent first-hand accounts, many of them were not read their rights, were told that they watched too much TV when they asked about them. Maybe it’s that many were singled out and mistreated by police. Women were stripped to their bras and underwear and were baited by male officers to insight accusations of disorderly conduct. Maybe it’s that this happened while people with significant amounts of money and influence walk free for doing a whole lot worse than exercising their first amendment rights.

Regardless of which among the above was the straw, on the Sunday before last I did something I never have before. I wrote an email to Art Acevedo, Austin’s police chief. Taking a different tack than many, I thanked him for what he did. It was because of what happened on October 30 that I woke up. I saw that this could happen in my city, a city I believed to be safe from this kind of abuse. I saw that this did affect me, because while I have no intentions of playing the financial game any more than I absolutely must, money gives those who have it powers and immunities which those of us without it lack. I closed by stating that this move by APD did not intimidate me. In fact, it has encouraged me to take up the cause and join with the occupants.

Wonder of wonders, I got a response within a few hours. It looked mostly form letterish, explaining that the occupants had been having public sex, urinating in the plaza, leaving the bathrooms a mess and doing other things that supposedly justified the police action. Leaving aside my questions as to why the arrests were against the group as a whole rather than the individuals whose actions Art seemed fairly certain of, and of whether or not these actions by individuals justified mistreating the group, that I got a response within a few hours showed me that we all have it within us to spark change. Perhaps mine was one of many emails received that day. But if we hadn’t sent them, then Art wouldn’t have had to sit down and draft a response.

But there was one paragraph in the email that stood out, one that made me feel like my email had truly been read and that, even if most of my response was form, part of it had either been written personally, or had been targeted to a small enough group that he felt compelled to add it:

“In closing, I am happy to see that you intend to start participating in OA since I know that OA truly wants to recapture the participation of a cross section of our society like we experienced on day one. Your participation will be a good outcome. Regardless of the public statements that may be expressed by OA, I know the truth to be that the environment we are creating in terms health and safety, is one that many OA participants have been longing for. Their hope is that a better environment will recapture the participants and spirit of Day One of OA.”

So, partially with Mr. Acevedo’s encouragement, I’m joining the occupation and helping where I can. I’ve joined the IT team. Thus far I’ve submitted a patch to the Sneakermesh Android app that improves accessibility. I’ve been watching the livestream in search of ways to help, and am working on an app that provides an unsecure, unreliable but cooperative means of communication between occupants at remote and fixed locations (so, for instance, someone can text or call a phone number and speak messages that get relayed to public computers at basecamp, then basecamp occupants can either type responses back which get texted or spoken or they can perform some needed task.) More on that when I have a release to share, which I hope will be in a few days.

Am I still looking for work? Yes, though I’m also putting myself in a more financially tenable position so I can start my own businesses. I don’t want my livelihood to depend on someone’s good will any longer, or on one other person’s willingness to keep me employed. Am I still keeping my money in a financial institution? Of course, but recently I joined a credit union and will be moving my money ASAP. They have their share of accessibility issues, but I called and spoke with those in a position to implement solutions–something I doubt I could have gotten from Bank of America.

But I do plan on finding ways to help with the occupation in person. This weekend I’m taking chair massage training and will need people on whom to practice. Who better than a bunch of tired occupants? I can wash a mean plate, cook a decent meal and do a number of other things that might help. And I can code, too. I’m nervous on my own in large groups, which is why I’m not there already, but I’m working on connecting up with people beforehand to mitigate that some.

For years I’ve avoided news and current events because they depress me. I have a low tolerance for human stupidity, and it bothers me to see people doing the same things again and again while expecting different results. Are these occupations more of the same? Perhaps, but they seem to be capturing people’s imaginations in a way that I personally have never experienced. Even if this comes to nothing, when people ask where I was during a movement that stood for many of the values I do, I don’t want to sheepishly explain that I was just sitting around watching the stream in my bathrobe. I want to be there, and even if I don’t have the balls to get arrested, I’d like to give my sleep and efforts to support those who do.