Posted: 11/12/2011 04:12:09 PM PST
SAN BERNARDINO - The Occupy Wall Street movement has officially spread into San Bernardino.
Occupy San Bernardino held its first protest and general meeting Saturday outside City Hall in solidarity with members from other movements in the Inland Empire.
"This is not only a political movement as some would put it. It's a social movement in how we think and how we treat each other," said Hector Guzman, one of the founders of Occupy San Bernardino.
As its first movement action, Guzman and other activists closed their bank accounts with Bank of America.
Members then marched around downtown, specifically in front of the three banks that sit adjacent to each other outside City Hall, chanting "we are the 99 percent."
Guzman, who is a college student, wanted to use the movement as a way to help his city, which has one of the highest unemployment rates and foreclosure rates in the nation.
"Every time I go to other area they're always talking about San Bernardino being one of the worse cities in the country," he said. "That right there is a big responsibility as an activist, for me as a citizen of this country to take action on that and try to make it better city and take it off the radar as one of the worse in the country."
Before getting started with the protest, founders of the San Bernardino movement, held their first general assembly and adopted a resolution of non-violence, similar to one adopted by Occupy Redlands.
Eleven activists in Riverside were arrested Nov. 5 after a clash with police.
"We feel it was important that everybody from the beginning was in consensus that we are a non-violent movement,"Guzman said. "That's in solidarity with all the movements around the globe. They are non-violent and to keep it non-violent because that is the power of this movement."
Mary Valdemar of San Bernardino, a member of Occupy Riverside, participated in the joint protest Saturday in support for Inland Empire's newest movement.
In San Bernardino, "most people are falling into the 99 percent category to the extreme where we have been impacted much more by foreclosures and so many businesses closed," said Valdemar, outside City Hall which is surrounded by vacant buildings, offices and a desolate Carousel Mall.
Valdemar, who works at a community college, said she personally hopes the movement will help open up higher education to students who are getting shut out.
But, the overall theme among movement activists is "change."
"Folks have a hard time kind of grasping that we don't have a campaign platform and we don't have a sound bite," she said. "But it's everyone whether they're conservative or liberal, old or young, tall or short, people of color or not - they all have one thing in common which is they see a huge need for change."
Kristie Sepulveda-Burchit of Ontario also joined the movement and looks for change in education.
"There needs to be change on a mass level," Sepulveda-Burchit said. "In this city along there is bloated bureaucracy of governmental agencies. I kind of sound like a tea partier talking like that."
As the mother of a special needs child, Sepulveda-Burchit said she is greatly impacted by the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino and the San Bernardino Superintendent of Schools.
"I'm not talking about the teachers. I'm talking about the administrators," she said. "It's a bloated bureaucracy at both Inland Regional Center and the superintendent of schools, so I'm for changing that. I don't want to see teachers blamed for anything. They're used as a scape goat. That's not what I'm about."
Reach Sandra via email, call her at 909-483-8555, or find her on Twitter @UplandNow .
Occupy San Bernardino held its first protest and general meeting Saturday outside City Hall in solidarity with members from other movements in the Inland Empire.
"This is not only a political movement as some would put it. It's a social movement in how we think and how we treat each other," said Hector Guzman, one of the founders of Occupy San Bernardino.
As its first movement action, Guzman and other activists closed their bank accounts with Bank of America.
Members then marched around downtown, specifically in front of the three banks that sit adjacent to each other outside City Hall, chanting "we are the 99 percent."
Guzman, who is a college student, wanted to use the movement as a way to help his city, which has one of the highest unemployment rates and foreclosure rates in the nation.
"Every time I go to other area they're always talking about San Bernardino being one of the worse cities in the country," he said. "That right there is a big responsibility as an activist, for me as a citizen of this country to take action on that and try to make it better city and take it off the radar as one of the worse in the country."
Before getting started with the protest, founders of the San Bernardino movement, held their first general assembly and adopted a resolution of non-violence, similar to one adopted by Occupy Redlands.
Eleven activists in Riverside were arrested Nov. 5 after a clash with police.
"We feel it was important that everybody from the beginning was in consensus that we are a non-violent movement,"Guzman said. "That's in solidarity with all the movements around the globe. They are non-violent and to keep it non-violent because that is the power of this movement."
Mary Valdemar of San Bernardino, a member of Occupy Riverside, participated in the joint protest Saturday in support for Inland Empire's newest movement.
In San Bernardino, "most people are falling into the 99 percent category to the extreme where we have been impacted much more by foreclosures and so many businesses closed," said Valdemar, outside City Hall which is surrounded by vacant buildings, offices and a desolate Carousel Mall.
Valdemar, who works at a community college, said she personally hopes the movement will help open up higher education to students who are getting shut out.
But, the overall theme among movement activists is "change."
"Folks have a hard time kind of grasping that we don't have a campaign platform and we don't have a sound bite," she said. "But it's everyone whether they're conservative or liberal, old or young, tall or short, people of color or not - they all have one thing in common which is they see a huge need for change."
Kristie Sepulveda-Burchit of Ontario also joined the movement and looks for change in education.
"There needs to be change on a mass level," Sepulveda-Burchit said. "In this city along there is bloated bureaucracy of governmental agencies. I kind of sound like a tea partier talking like that."
As the mother of a special needs child, Sepulveda-Burchit said she is greatly impacted by the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino and the San Bernardino Superintendent of Schools.
"I'm not talking about the teachers. I'm talking about the administrators," she said. "It's a bloated bureaucracy at both Inland Regional Center and the superintendent of schools, so I'm for changing that. I don't want to see teachers blamed for anything. They're used as a scape goat. That's not what I'm about."
Reach Sandra via email, call her at 909-483-8555, or find her on Twitter @UplandNow .
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