Woman To Serve Turkey To OccupyMN Protesters
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO/AP) — For Occupy Minnesota protesters, the weather is nice and they're allowed to attach signs to the "People's Plaza" again, but some still aren't referring to Thursday as Thanksgiving.
A small crowd of about a dozen protesters are spending their holiday on the Hennepin County Government Plaza, but instead they're calling it Occupygiving or ThanksTaking.
"We're gonna have our Thanksgiving meal. It's just that people need to understand there's a lot more to our history than is put forward" said protestor Ben Painter, after explaining the suffering American Indians went through before the first Thanksgiving.
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The meal they're going to enjoy comes as a surprise from retired Plymouth resident Linda Thompson. She said she didn't have Thanksgiving plans, so she and some church friends decided to cook for the occupiers.
Thompson said she wants to honor the young people who have braved cold Minnesota weather for an important principle.
As for how the occupiers feel the demonstration is going so far, Painter said it's been going according to plan.
"I don't think we expected a whole lot of people to be out here for the winter, but we have a very consistent group here now. We're planning to hold this til the springtime and they won't be able to hold us back when it comes to springtime" said Painter.
Next week, the protesters plan to hold a mass action to continue to prepare for the cold, snowy winter. They plan to put up 99 tents for the 99 percent to defend their right to assemble and have shelter.
Hennepin County continues to deny their request for tents, stating that no one has the right to use the plaza as a private campground.
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