Occupy Nanaimo - Leadership Opportunity knocks

Good timing at the Krall space yesterday.

I know I have been lucky to have had nobody press me on what I would do with Occupy Nanaimo if I was Mayor.  So I began bouncing the question around more vigorously today among my "team".  Rufus enjoys bouncing things yet it just seemed to tire him out too.  The women in my life got me moving with a clear - "have you talked to them".  I arrived about 5:00pm just as people were congregating for supper and a general assembly meeting.  I had several good chats with both people I had met before (Matt & Kara) at a recent SECA (South End Community Association) meeting, and a new face that I had bantered with online Sarah Schmidt.   The Matt moment was perhaps the deepest water I had ventured into on the "why are you doing this" ocean.  And it is an ocean of a subject - broad, stormy and compelling.

This is my take:
1) its about the world financial crisis and the greed & manipulation of bond traders
2) its about the probability of the same sort of thing happening again
3) its about doing something to prevent 2)

Getting back to Matt again for a moment, he is young, well groomed and mannered.  He repeatedly dealt with interruptions in our conversation in a way that made me want to hire him as a front line complaint service worker.  I believed him when he said he had never protested about anything before, that he is still not sure what brought him to the plaza on day 1, but here on day 21+(the sign has not been updated for a few days) here he was still pleasant, committed and willing.  How can I not respect that?  He was up on the news too, informing me that today's Gallop poll put national support for the Occupy Movement at 53% - about what my gut said too.  It is a good idea, barely.

I am watching what is developing in Vancouver & Victoria, its heading down ugly street and comments in our paper have the bandwagons circling.  I met recently with Manager of Coast Bastion- his guests are taking home stories of shabby Nanaimo.  So what is the next step?

I asked among the group and had a variety of answers and hopeful looks.  I am wearing a suit, with a poppy thank you.  I am heading to a campaign Open House, pumped up again to meet people interested enough to move on a dark evening to see me.  My spidey sense is telling me something familiar, like the day, Oct 12, when I was in Norm McNabb's office and I realized I had to run for Mayor because no one was stepping up with commitment and conviction on the Supportive  Housing issue.

Here we go again - yeesh, this just gets better every day. If I was leader of this city, I would come out and say what I would do.  Isn't that what leadership is?  To at least put up an opinion and let others challenge it, hoist it higher or just look at it and draw strength from the fact that if something better does not materialize, then there is a plan.  Wondering creates so much of the stress and grief in my life. The good or bad decisions allow me to move; it is "indecision" that truly paralyzes me.

 So here is what I would do:

1) Propose a City of Nanaimo Council resolution to request the US government to suspend the business licenses of the US Bond Rating Companies, all of them - Moody's, Standard & Poors, Fitch, Egan-Jones, Rapid.  List them all and basically call for all of them to be suspended and replaced with a government department that does the job.

2) Invite the Occupy Nanaimo leaders to address City Council - as many speakers as want to speak.

3) Have Council vote on sending the Resolution.

Then if they want to stay in the Krall space, I truly can say I have done the best I can do.

What more can anyone ask of a leader?