* * Mara gets arrested

“The funniest sign I saw was held by an old woman with purple hair. It said, ‘I’m 80 and I’m pissed,’” joked Mara Bertelli, recounting her Occupy Wall Street experience. A double-major honors student at Hollins University, Mara traveled to New York in September, three weeks after the movement began to participate and show her support.

Mara and I are acquainted because she went to secondary schools in Blacksburg with my daughter, and our families became friends. Mara admits to an offbeat look, with a dreadlock-Mohawk haircut and 7 unmatched earrings. She broke from her studies to visit with me.

“The (Occupy) camp had around 200 people. There was free food for anyone who needed it. There were scores of tents. It was a strong, well-established occupation.

“The way our financial situation in America is being handled these days is ruinous to lower and middle-class people. Corporations and our government have no interest in what is good for anyone but themselves. I’m not an economist and I can’t explain in detail what’s wrong – I think even economists can’t fully explain. Critics expect protestors to readily hand out full theses on what exactly is wrong. Just because many protesters can’t do that doesn’t mean their concerns aren’t valid. I share with many other protesters the general distrust towards government and industry about how our country is being run. Most politicians are in the pocket of large corporations.

“The Occupy movements are general forums. They are places for discussions and ideas. It is antithetical that only limited opinions are held or expressed. It is our Constitutional right to show our dissatisfaction through protesting.”

The high point – or low point, as it was – from the experience, was being arrested for marching across the Brooklyn Bridge. “The police weren’t impeding our progress onto the bridge. There were too many of us to know what was going on at the front. We were about a third of the way onto the bridge when they stopped us. There was a lot of confusion about what was going on. When the march stopped, I assumed we’d be turned around. Instead, they wrapped us with orange plastic mesh fence and told us we were being arrested. They let go parents with children and people with dogs, but the rest of us were zip-tied and put into vans where we were taken to local precincts. I spent the rest of the evening being processed. I spent five hours in handcuffs. I got two tickets. One was for being on a forbidden roadway and the other was for blocking traffic.

“We had no pre-meditated intent to be arrested. We simply wanted to march. I got out of the police station late at night and then had to find a subway station to return to the friends’ house where I was staying.

“I contacted the National Lawyer’s Guild and they put me in touch with a lawyer who agreed to represent me pro-bono. My trial date is on my exam week, so he is representing me without my presence.”

I asked her if she thought the experience was worthwhile. She said, “On a personal level, I’m learning that many people who were arrested are found not guilty and are not having to pay fines, mostly because they didn’t know they were breaking any laws.

“On a greater level, we are showing the rest of the United States and the world that we aren’t just lazy apathetic kids. We are bringing awareness to the people that (income inequality) is a problem. It is one thing to sit around with friends and bitch about it. It is another thing to take grievances to the streets in active protests. There was little media attention early on, but not now. The movement is now national, and people are being motivated to show their own feelings of distrust and frustration. It is good to know that people in this country are still capable of getting up off our asses and having our voices heard. As our (financial) situation continues to deteriorate, people will become more involved. The Occupy movement isn’t going away.

“On that bridge that day, I was exercising my First Amendment Right to assemble and express grievances. (That right) was infringed upon by the government in the form of uniformed police. This is supremely unfair. Everyday people are intimidated by fear of being sprayed with tear gas or having sonic weaponry used on them. In order to protest, you must get a permit. You must not use a megaphone. You have to follow specific sets of rules made by the governments you wish to oppose. Unarmed and largely peaceful US citizens find themselves staring at lines of riot cops, with shields, helmets, tasers, and tear-gas guns.

“I am not indolent. I work hard. I want the system to work better for myself and everyone, not just the rich. My family is proud and supportive of me. I will protest again.”