One year later, what does BU think of Occupy Boston?

amirakfrancis
Aug 19, 2022
2 min read

Walking down Commonwealth Avenue, I asked Boston University students what they thought about Occupy Boston. Although the answers varied, the most popular ones I heard were:

“Like, the same thing that happened on Wall Street?” “Uh … I’m the wrong person to ask.”

Wait – who is the right person to ask? I understand that we all get wrapped up in our own social lives and become very focused on following our own dreams and ambitions. But if we, as adults emerging into the world, don’t understand what’s happening around us, how can we hope to contribute to the society that controls us?

That being said, I am definitely one of those people absorbed in my own little world. It’s hard to juggle getting good grades, pursuing my career and fulfilling my hobbies all while staying informed about what’s going on beyond my immediate surroundings.

For those who aren’t quite sure what Occupy Boston is, it’s a group of protesters who set up their tents on Dewey Square in Boston’s Financial District on September 30, 2011. They call for reforming Wall Street and removing special interests from the government in order to achieve equal treatment for the 99 percent of the population that the government doesn’t favor. Although this happened nearly one year ago, Occupy Boston still holds organized meetings and events today and intends to hold a protest in honor of its one year anniversary on September 30.

For everyone invested in the success (or demise) of Occupy Boston, it is a very heated issue. Students on both sides, however, seem to agree on one thing:

“I feel like a lot of people were protesting and didn’t know what they were protesting about,” said College of Arts and Sciences senior Aubrey Macgill.

College of Fine Arts senior Anteo Fabris said something similar: “at the core, it was really for a sort of a good idealistic purpose, but for some reason it became really quickly corrupted by people who didn’t really know what they were doing or talking about, who sort of were thrilled by the idea of just camping out somewhere and being rebellious.”

Now it’s just a question of who is going to step in and take the lead in order to change it.