Kevin Warnock

Robert Reich delivering speech 'Class Warfare in America' on Sproul Hall steps at UC Berkeley during Occupy CAL protest on November 15, 2011

I attended the Occupy Cal protest at University of California at Berkeley last evening, November 15, 2011. There were over 1,000 protesters there, including many approaching retirement age that indicated by a show of hands that they had earlier been there protesting in the 1960s and 1970s. It was an electrifying event that I will cover in detail in another blog post.

The event was made more thrilling by a speech given by Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at Cal. Cal is an abbreviation for University of California at Berkeley, for my readers unfamiliar with the word. The definition of Cal is well known locally, but on the world stage UC Berkeley is better known.

Reich was United States Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton. Reich is also a frequent commentator on NPR (formerly National Public Radio) in the United States. NPR is my favorite radio station, and I’ve heard Reich speak many times on the air. Last night was the first time I’ve seen him speak.

I brought my tripod and set up my Canon 5D Mark II camera with two of the legs touching one of the Occupy Cal camping tents that had earlier been set up before the steps of Sproul Hall at Sproul Plaza. This was  a fantastic vantage point because the tent was already blocking the view of those sitting behind it, so my tripod didn’t appreciably further block the view. I simply sat on the pavement while the camera recorded. I recorded the full speech, and you can watch it in the video below. This is a compressed upload, but I have the full 7 gigabyte file in full HD. If you need the file for some project, please contact me.

Reich’s talk was very well received by the audience, including the tent dwellers sitting right next to me who graciously allowed me to set up there.

It was an inspiring and powerful speech. I am not going to try to summarize it since it’s brief and presented here in its entirety. I encourage you to watch it all the way through, and share it with your social network. I was so taken with it that I stayed up late into the morning editing and compressing the video so I could get this posted today during the day.

Occupy Wall Street greywater system. Photograph taken October 6, 2011 by Flickr.com user david_shankbone.

I worry people will be hurt if New York City police attempt to clear out the Occupy Wall Street participants from Zuccotti Park in New York City, New York, USA tomorrow morning at 7am local time.

Occupy Wall Street faces eviction Friday morning

Protesters suspicious of plan to clean up NYC park

Occupy Wall Street protesters fear eviction from park

NYC protesters suspicious of plan to kick them out temporarily for park cleanup

These helpful people in the park probably have formed strong friendships with each other. They are probably extremely agitated right now. They are probably tired but energized. I can see them resisting being evicted to the point where the police bring out their Tasers and guns. That’s a recipe for somebody being injured or killed. It will be tragic if Zuccotti Park joins the ranks of the words Kent State or Columbine. I support Occupy Wall Street to the extent I know about it. I certainly applaud the people participating, and I’m impressed with the press and support they have generated.