By Ezra Silk
BOSTON — I arrived in Boston Saturday afternoon, eager to see celebrity blogger Glenn Greenwald address the Occupy Boston demonstrators in Dewey Square. Driving rain whipped the dozens of tents massed in front of the Federal Reserve.
In South Station, across the street, a group of occupiers were meeting in front of Au Bon Pain, discussing where to hold the night’s general assembly, given the inclement weather. Although he was not the facilitator, a man with a red, rabbinical beard and a Cuban revolutionary cap seemed to be in charge. A young black guy turned to me, apparently eager to talk.
My name’s Ezra, I said.
“I think there is certainly an awakening that’s happening," said Shane Aspinall.
“Maslow?” he asked.
No, Ezra, I said. He wanted to know if I was the reincarnation of psychologist Abraham Maslow. I chuckled.
His name was Shane Aspinall, a real estate entrepreneur from New York who had been spending most of his time in Dewey Square for the past month. He had not yet been to Occupy Wall Street.
“I think there is certainly an awakening that’s happening, and I feel it has to do with the fact that finally Americans have come into contact with the injustice and almost the veil, a slow unveiling of the fact that we are one as people,” he said. “We live, breathe the same air, you know what I’m saying. We’re one, and in spite of our advancements, in spite of all these technological and social…in spite of diversity, in spite of all these, there are still injustices that are still around, and one of the greatest injustices is the fact that people can’t get their needs met, their basic needs.”
I asked him why this awakening was happening now, of all times.
“It’s a very good question. They say God’s days are not our days — like, a thousand years could probably be a day to God. And perhaps God left us for one day, he said, ‘Oh, I’m coming back the next day.’ And he’s finally coming back, right?”
He clarified that he was not referring to “any religious god,” but to a universal spirit — “that flame within that keeps us going.”
Greenwald, whose speech had been postponed, was crouching over a laptop at a nearby table, his face projecting the machine’s aquatic glow. Two men from Occupy Needham, one sporting a Free Bradley Manning button, stood nearby, chatting.
Back home, Aspinall said, he engages in a form of professional populism, helping his clients circumvent realtors.
“I felt realtors with their whole certification and license — they had kind of a monopoly on the real estate market,” he said. “So even then I was kind of a Robin Hood, trying to look for ways to bring back the power to the people.”
With the impending winter, Aspinall is focused on preserving Occupy Boston, he said. If the encampment does not survive the cold, he said, it will persevere in his thoughts.
“When I leave the physical occupation, I find that my mind is occupied, that my heart is occupied,” Aspinall said. “This movement is something that you can’t escape from. You can try to hide away from it, but it’s inescapable. You know the reason why it’s inescapable? Because it’s so true. It’s so real. It’s so organic, it can’t be disputed. There are injustices.”
