Murphy paused to consider the consequences. If he spoke out, he would likely be grabbed, cuffed, and detained for questioning. Maybe even jailed for a bit. He'd been in jail before. He didn't want to go back.

House Speaker John Boehner entered the Chamber, sauntered to the podium, and struck his gavel, calling the floor to order. His bright orange tie matched his famous tan. Murphy looked at Boehner as if he were everything that was wrong with America. If Boehner had looked up at Murphy, a young, white troublemaker dressed all in black, he might have thought the same. The 15-minute sign-in for the quorum began.

Murphy paused to consider the consequences. He'd been in jail before. He didn't want to go back.

Asked if he planned to still go through with it, Murphy sunk into his blue and gold flip-up seat and said, "Probably not. It's not worth it."

He seemed drained after nine hours of playing cat-and-mouse with police on the West Lawn and roaming Capitol Hill. He didn't want to define the next stage of the movement based on whatever words he would have shouted out.

Minutes later, Murphy and the young woman stood up and walked out. They planned to catch the hundreds of protesters who had just left the Capitol on a four-mile march. The new sergeant-at-arms was sworn in soon after and the politicians moved on without realizing that Murphy and the others had ever been there. And despite weeks of preparing for Occupy Congress, the most comprehensive effort in two months to repaint Occupy Wall Street as the romantic yet realistic solution for transforming the country's economic system, most of the country moved on, too.

***

At 5:30 p.m. on January 16, Ben Zucker was in full planning mode. Zucker is a key organizer within Occupy DC in McPherson Square Park, which at that time was the movement's largest and longest-running encampment, and Occupy Congress was his baby. Organizers had put out the call for thousands of supporters to come greet their elected officials and raise the public's awareness of corporate influence in government. And after two and a half months of bad press and in-plain-sight hibernation, this was a chance for a fractured Occupy Wall Street to win back mainstream America.

"We are protesting the influence of the 'one percent' on our society and no better way to do it than take it right to the doorsteps of power," Zucker said, wide-eyed and beaming. It had to be organic, symbolic, and structured, he thought, since it was disorganization, a muddled message, and clashes with police that had damaged the movement's reputation and stunted its growth. His dark sweater and black jacket seemed too large for his frame, but along with his overgrown auburn beard, they helped protect him from the biting cold. The next day promised to be warmer.

At 23, Zucker has the organizing gene. He's a fresh graduate of Tulane University, where he studied public health to get a foot in the door of social justice work, and his family lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, just inside the Beltway. He once spent a semester running a health program in Senegal, and upon his return, he got involved with a protest by dining services workers. Zucker, who was hooked after first swinging by McPherson in early October, represents the liberal side of the movement. He wants universal health care and federal takeovers of big banks, and he thinks Occupy Wall Street is a good way to make it all happen.