American Horror Story: Student Loan Debt and Suicide Over Wilted Pancakes
Several weeks ago I visited Austin, Texas to report on the #Occupy movement there. The mood was festive, friendly, uplifting. Occupy Wall Street had already turned ugly on several occasions, especially the pepper-spraying incident involving an NYPD white shirt and several young women, but protesters elsewhere had yet to see such instances of violence (the police brutality in Oakland had yet to shock). That’s perhaps one of the reasons why things felt so comfortable and laid back in Austin.
The weekend after I was in Austin, I ventured to Tulsa, Oklahoma. There I met four smart and highly engaged protesters at a local IHOP. We received wilted pancakes and burnt bacon, scorched coffee and sickeningly sweet “juice” very early in the morning. One of the protesters said apologetically, “Sorry that we met here. We have to go across the street to protest Target.”
“You have no reason to apologize, it makes sense to me,” I replied, while