Some of the progressive blogs are lauding the protests against Wall Street as if these protests were an uprising of the “PEOPLE” against the rich, and a copy of the heroism of the Arab Spring.

Now, I am aghast at the Wall Street shenanigans as much as the next person, but when the president and his men are deeply enmeshed in that culture of a new world financial order, I doubt they will listen to me.

And exactly what is the alternative? I mean, yes, I’ve read Chomsky et al but it seems that their anti capitalistic rhetoric didn’t exactly work when it was put into practice. Zimbabwe, North Korea, Venezuela and pre capitalistic China were not exactly places of peace and prosperity, whereas South Korea, Malaysia, South Africa and Brazil are getting out of poverty the capitalistic way.

Luckily you live in a free system where you won’t “disappear” for protesting.

On the other hand, I am not sure what you and these 700 clowns are going to do, beside make folks wonder why there are so few of them.

Come on now: Liberals used to be able to get crowds of thousands to protest anything in the good old days. What’s wrong with our young people?

Well, I shouldn’t say only 700: The crowd swelled to a full 2000 after a rock group was supposed to show up….and didn’t.

“I actually think it’s kind of ridiculous,” said a dreadlocked 20-year-old who identified himself as Pigpen. “The only reason 500 people are here is because they think Radiohead is going to be here.”

Organizers were red-faced.

They were even more redfaced when they picketed the wrong office.

A crowd of more than 2,000 people marched up Broadway, past a closed City Hall Park, under the arch of the Municipal Building and massed outside what some mistakenly thought was NYPD headquarters.

But most of the chanting horde plopped down in front of One St. Andrew’s Plaza, which houses the U.S. Attorney’s Office, not the NYPD.

So what’s the next step? Block ordinary folks from getting home, of course. No, not the tunnels near Wall Street, but the Brooklyn Bridge, near China Town. I guess it’s a bit closer to Wall Street than the George Washington Bridge, but stopping the traffic a couple hours for middle class and working folks is not the way to win friends and influence people.

And this protester should have cut her mouth shut.

Erin Larkins, a graduate student at Columbia University who says she and her boyfriend have $130,000 combined in student loan debt, was among the thousands of protesters on the bridge. She said a friend persuaded her to join the march and she’s glad she did.

“I don’t think we’re asking for much, just to wake up every morning not worrying whether we can pay the rent, or whether our next meal will be rice and beans again,”

She owes  $130 000 dollars but “isn’t asking for much”? Exactly how much money does she think “much” is?

Presumably she never heard the expression “There is no such thing as a free lunch”.

Except of course she already not only has had a free lunch but the equivalent of a free education at someone else’s expense. Who wants to bet she and her boyfriend will default in paying back the loans, and feel justified in doing so because it’s “rich folks” money (read retirement savings from hardworking old folks like us).

Well, honey, instead of “asking” for a free lunch, I can think of some alternatives.

Maybe she should have gone to a cheaper University than Colombia, where a year of graduate work will cost $32,000.

My grandchildren and I attended states universities where tuition was lower, and we worked part time to supplement our fees.

My son earned tuition money from Americorps.

I paid back part of my tuition loans by working in needy areas, my son in law got his masters degree thanks to the US Navy, and my husband earned his tuition from his veterans benefits.

Nah. Working a couple years building homes in Appalachia like my son might ruin her manicure, and she probably never even met someone who was in the military (“not one of us”).

Or maybe she should not have gone to graduate school but found a job instead, and gone to graduate school at night.

A third option, of course, is to marry her boyfriend and then flip coins to see which one quits to go to work and which one finishes the degree first.Nah, forget it. That would take hard work and maturity, neither of which seems to be on display.

Talk is cheap. It’s easy to “demonstrate” against problems, but harder to find a solution.

I have no solution to the world’s economic problems, but I suspect you have even less idea of how the world economic system works, let alone a suggestion on how to fix it.

But if you are a spoiled rich kid with an attitude and a handy IPad that the world “owes” you something, that doesn’t matter. You want to “do something”, and protesting with the possibility of a RadioHead concert is a lot more fun that working in a homeless shelter or tutoring kids after school.

Oh, I’m so impressed (not).

Could an old lady give you some advice?

Keep your mouth shut and stop dissing the hard working cops. They weren’t the ones who bilked billions from Wall street.

Unlike you, they work hard for their money, and often risk their lives to keep the city streets safe for your benefit.

You know, even when we older hardworking and law abiding folks hear of the “innocent” being peppersprayed,  we are cynical about it. You have been trying to provoke a reaction for days, and now that you have provoked an incident trying to block ordinary folks from using a bridge to get home after work, you have your headlines and are happy.

Maybe Powerline is right in saying ” the days are gone when a policeman can wantonly assault protesters, no matter how obnoxious they may be”, but some of us figure that after days of verbal insults and harssment trying to start violence and blocking traffic etc. in order to get a headline, that it is a miracle that it took this long for someone to snap.

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Nancy Reyes is a retired physician living in the rural Philippines.

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