Occupied in Atlanta
Two supporters of Occupy Atlanta
showed up at my church last Sunday. Now, I should say--they didn't come
to worship. They showed up just as I was locking the doors to go home,
slightly before two. Two 20-somethings, at least one of them pulling on a
cigarette. Both a bit scraggly, unshaven, unkempt-looking. They sort of
sauntered toward me, making minimal eye contact.
"Hey."
"Hey," I said. "Can I help you?"
The first guy didn't seem to want to make a sentence. But he persisted:
"We are involved with this thing. And we thought you guys would want to
know about it." He handed me a homemade 1/4 sheet black & white
flyer. It said "Occupy Atlanta."
"Yeah, I know about the movement," I said. "I've been following it on Twitter."
"Oh, cool. Alright. And we were wondering if we could borrow some candles."
"Candles?"
"Yeah, we're occupying Woodruff Park and we're re-naming it 'Troy Davis
Park' and tomorrow is his birthday and we're going to be holding a
vigil. We were hoping you might have some candles we could use."
So, I didn't give him any candles. I might have, but I honestly don't know where we keep candles.
What I took from the interaction were these things:
1) This guy came to OUR church, nowhere near Woodruff Park. Turns
out he had been there "about 10 years ago" and knew one of our church
families and thought we might be sympathetic to the cause.
