Occupy

A COPY OF THIS POST APPEARS AS THE LEAD LETTER TO THE EDITOR IN TODAY’S BOSTON GLOBE - IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THIS PIECE WAS WRITTEN PRIOR TO THE EVENTS AT HAMILTON HALL, AND ELSEWHERE ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES AROUND THE NATION YESTERDAY

We chanted, “This is what democracy looks like,” as we headed toward the park that had become home to those who were protesting policies we considered anathema to our fundamental beliefs and to causes this nation should be fostering and promoting.

It was a little more than a decade ago that, for a few months, Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan became the center of Occupy Wall Street, with social inequality and corporate greed the evils to be defeated. Over time, the movement spread throughout the United States and around the world.

That spot in the park quickly became its own town, with a library and organized food services. While tents were forbidden, many set up camp, sleeping bags the only protection from the elements for some. In mid-November, with the city claiming the park was becoming a health and safety hazard, police cleared the site and arrested people who refused to leave. Similar crackdowns took place elsewhere, and the Occupy fervor dissipated.

I recall all of this as I watch events unfold at Columbia University and other college campuses.

I’m writing not to address the propriety of today’s protests, their motivation, or the forces driving them but rather to wonder at the intoxicating nature of protest itself, the adrenaline rush of becoming part of what is, in that moment, for that moment, irresistible. Some of those involved are fully committed, morally and emotionally, while others are along for the thrill of the ride.

College students are awakening this morning to the sounds and sights of something many are drawn to, as stimulating to them as Zuccotti Park was to us in the fall of 2011.

No matter the underlying predicate, for those taking part in the protests as well as for the rest of us on the outside peering in, this is what democracy looks like today.