Today was a special day at Occupy Kingwood. It was the 26th consecutive week. In other words, we completed the half way mark of our planned 52 consecutive weeks of occupying a large well-travelled intersection in Kingwood, Texas (West Lake Houston Blvd & Kingwood Drive). We have been at this location every Saturday between 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM for 26 weeks. We make sure to leave the location as clean as or cleaner than when we got there.

This week all the usual suspects were back from their many activities that caused many absences (e.g., Texas Democratic Convention, Netroots Nation 2012, and a Democracy Conference for Students). Professor Davis and Valerie, two of our stalwarts, held down the fort with Stephanie, and a few others. Valerie recorded the clips from last week’s video. The temperature was a bit toasty but the camaraderie got us through.

Today a young lady (Cathy) with her toddler in toe parked and walked over to talk to us. She found many of our signs objectionable. She specifically was taken aback by our sign “The War On Women”. We discussed that issue as well as the Affordable Care Act with her but she seemed unconvinced initially. I invited her to a Coffee Party meeting given its trans-partisan nature (I am sure she would not have taken kindly to an invite to our wonderful group, the Kingwood Area Democrats (KAD)). Well, maybe if KAD member Marc Croes had used his charm she would have joined KADJ. Stephanie spent a substantial amount of time after our occupy speaking to Cathy. That is what it is all about.

We are not here trying to specifically change anyone’s party affiliation, culture, or values. We are here trying to inform. We believe if folks are informed they will make the right decisions when they find themselves in the privacy of the voting booth. After all, many of us are staunch Democrats; there are many Socialist Democrats, Greens, a couple of Republicans that would not admit it, and a few Libertarians. All of us out here share the core value of looking for middle class centric solutions. We have differences but understand that in the big picture they are minor.

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