Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

November 18, 2011

Occupy Maine profiles

By David Hench dhench@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

There’s a baker. A veteran. An activist. An urban farmer. With its everyone-welcome philosophy, the Occupy Maine encampment has attracted people from all walks of life, with myriad stories about what, exactly, has drawn them to Lincoln Park and what they hope to accomplish.

Inside the iron fence that rings the park, campers can get food, medical attention, companionship and shared purpose.

But for every person who drives by and honks their horn in solidarity, is another yelling at them to get a job. They are vilified as lazy, anti-capitalist, sentimentalist or unable to understand how the real world works.

They say they are the real world, and that’s why they are there. Here are some of their stories.

'Occupy is a state of mind, a state of being'

Heather Curtis, 42, had just returned from the Common Ground Fair this fall when she came down with the flu.

Stuck at home, she surfed the Web and discovered the Occupy Wall Street movement. When she learned a related group was coalescing at Monument Square in Portland, she baked an apple "Occu-pie" and joined them.

"Coming together and getting set for winter is a real way of providing clarity. It's a crucible," she said.

Curtis has been living in Portland for 11 years, moving here from the midcoast. She makes small purses out of old neckties, what she calls "repurposing the corporate noose."

Her teenagers have decided to stay home rather than join her in the tent she has set up near the park fountain, where she has been sleeping for about a week after visiting the encampment daily. As she talks, a couple strolls into the park, arm in arm, and asks where to make a financial donation. They say they support the occupiers even if they don't stay there.

"Occupy is a state of mind, a state of being, a state of heart," Curtis tells the couple. "You don't have to be physically present here." 

'My job gets stopped and I'm unemployed'

Randy Santa Cruz, 55, has spent the past two weeks with Occupy Maine. He was returning from a three-week construction job as a laborer in Connecticut when he stopped in to check it out.

"I had been following the occupation when it was just in Wall Street," Santa Cruz said. "It was great. They were finally doing something to address the problems we're having. ... I think we have to tip the scales a little bit back at least."

Originally form Kansas, Santa Cruz has been living in Jonesport and Lubec -- commercial fishing, raking blueberries, collecting edible snails -- working to get by while the construction industry lies dormant. Early in the recession, Santa Cruz had been hired to work on a 40-story casino hotel in Connecticut, but after the foundation went in, the job was put on hold. The project would have employed thousands, who would have been able to support their families, he said.

He watched in the aftermath as banks got rescued and investment bankers got bonuses.

"My job gets stopped and I'm unemployed. It just seems like a slap in the face," he said. "I'm angry."

Santa Cruz helps run the kitchen and has been impressed with how generous donors have been.

As he talks, a cyclist whizzes by and shouts "Sidewalks are for walking, not standing." Santa Cruz says many people are supportive but some yell out criticism.

(Continued on page 2)

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