To the Editor:

Anyone who has spent a few days — or nights — in occupied Zuccotti Park near Wall Street this past week would have trouble recognizing what they’ve seen in “Gunning for Wall Street, With Faulty Aim,” by Ginia Bellafante (Big City column, Sept. 25).

The protesters’ numbers have been growing, not “dwindling,” both in New York and in related occupations around the country. Though their views are diverse, what exactly unites them is anything but “impossible to decipher”: the rampant corruption of the country’s politics by a wealthy few.

At the symbolic heart of that corruption, protesters are making decisions and organizing themselves through a purposely leaderless, consensus-based process based on people, not money. For many Americans, nonviolent direct action like this is the best hope for having a political voice, and it deserves to be taken seriously by those of us in the press.

NATHAN SCHNEIDER

New York, Sept. 25, 2011

The writer is editor of WagingNonviolence.org.