Why we don't have an Occupation site yet

I submit that one significant reason we don't have a greater level of support for an occupation is that many of us don't really know why we need an occupation. I include myself. Sure, it would show solidarity with the Occupy Wall St. group, and provide some geographical center for whatever it is that we imagine we're doing here, but are these reasons enough? If we as a group were already sure we wanted a site, we'd have no trouble simply taking a site, and accepting the risks and inconveniences entailed.

Here are two ways of thinking about why we need an occupation, and how willing we will be to actually occupy.

1. One way of determining the meaning of an occupation site is to see its importance or meaning to three groups:
1.  Ourselves. We might ask: What can we do on site that we can’t do online, or with weekly rallies?
2. Hostile outsiders, like the city and corporations. What will it mean to these groups that we are occupying a site? What will we show them about who we are and what we want? What might it show them about their perpetual environmental/economic/political brinksmanship?
3. Friendly outsiders like other occupations, and the 99% we’re trying to appeal to. What will it mean to these groups that we have a site?
2. Who will be willing to actually occupy? And not just in good weather. Not just when you can spare a few hours. Who is willing to get your body in that space even when no official meeting or action is called? Assuming that we cannot find a “legal” site, will you be willing to be arrested, to go to jail in your determination to occupy? No one can answer these questions for you.

We don't know why we need a site because we haven't spent enough time understanding the first point: what this occupation would do for ourselves. This group has been largely formed in imitation of something we admired when we looked east to New York City. That’s a good start, but we haven't yet made it our own. Perhaps a site really isn't essential to what we are trying to do here. (I think it's essential, but I don't claim to speak for all or even most people here.) Perhaps much can be accomplished through rallies, marches, and General Assemblies. An occupation seems only like a good idea to most people here. Only when we know that it is essential to our struggle, our humanity, only when it becomes the crucial first step in our united redress of grievances, and in our imagining a new world, will we occupy. We must want that site more than we want comfort, for it will be quite uncomfortable. We must want that site more than we want convenience, for a 24-hour occupation will certainly inconvenience us. We must want that site more than we want security, for we will be putting ourselves at risk of arrest or even violence.

Are we ready to be made truly uncomfortable and inconvenienced, ready to put our bodies at risk? Are we ready to begin something that we have never done before? Are we ready for having to depend upon one another? If we are not, then we need to accept that we just thought an occupation was a nice idea, but that we're just not up to the struggle for the dignity, humanity, and justice that we claim we want. And that would be a sad realization.