‘Occupy’ effort finds support in Naperville debut

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Frank Goetz of Wheaton stands out in front of the "Occupy Naperville" protest at US Bank in Downtown Naperville on Saturday October 22nd, 2011. Terence Guider-Shaw~For Sun-Times Media

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Updated: November 24, 2011 8:11AM

Over the past several days, Steve Alesch spent a lot of time with his iPhone. He worked the device quite a bit as he and a couple of fellow organizers pulled together plans for the debut of Occupy Naperville, an extension of the anti-corporate uprising that began five weeks ago on Wall Street. The irony of his dependence on the iconic product of a huge corporate presence isn’t lost on him.

“We like corporations,” said Alesch, a software engineer and Warrenville Park District commissioner. “We just don’t want them running our government.”

They had company Saturday morning, when about 50 people turned out to launch a protest that will recur weekly “until corporate dominance over our government has ended,” Alesch said.

Established locally less than a week ago, the nonviolent movement draws adherents who see the influence of big business over elected lawmakers as a huge problem.

“Of course there’s root causes of that, and the root causes, I think, are money in politics, particularly corporate money in politics,” said Alesch, 56, who is pushing for a federal amendment that would restrict Constitutional guarantees to citizens, no longer extending them to corporations.

Many issues,
one voice

The inaugural protest drew a variety of participants, who brought an array of concerns.

Susan and Dan Higgins are ready to see some productive dialogue take the place of political bickering. The Naperville couple also see an image problem.

“I think the perception is that Naperville is all luxury SUVs and McMansions,” said Susan Higgins, 57. “That’s just not true.”

She has been looking for work since losing her job as a corporate video producer three years ago and is discouraged by long-term unemployment.

“It’s not the future I wanted to look forward to,” she said.

A technology writer, Dan Higgins, 56, said Congressional leaders’ focus has been off base in recent months. He thinks the Occupy protests serve to direct attention to jobs and other issues that matter much more to most Americans.

“It does seem like an opportunity to raise the level of conversation,” he said.

Tom Cordaro of Aurora shared a similar view. Justice and outreach minister at St. Mary Margaret Catholic Church in south Naperville, he came out for some of the same reasons he serves as national ambassador of peace for Pax Christi.

“I think, most immediately, we need to have a conversation in our nation about issues that are really important,” said Cordaro, 57.

He wants the rules of common decency followed instinctively by most Americans to apply equally to the corporate sector.

“If you break it, you fix it. If you make a mess, you clean it up,” he said. “These are simple, basic lessons that have been lost.”

He is frustrated when Washington lawmakers fixate on issues such as the debt ceiling when he thinks attention is far more urgently needed elsewhere — such as on the 46 million Americans, most of them kids, who live in poverty.

“When the Hermanator (Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain) says poor people are just lazy, most of those are children he’s talking about,” Cordaro said.

As they convened Saturday morning at Washington Street and Ogden Avenue, the group hoisted signs that read “No more silent majority!” and “We are the 99 percent, too big to fail,” and “Honk if you support us.”

Some backlash

The participants were energized by a continuous chorus of car horns as they gathered and marched up Washington, chanting slogans as they went, to continue the demonstration at Jefferson Avenue and Main Street. Just a few passersby exhibited disdain, two drivers shouting “get a job!” through their open windows, and one displaying a middle finger at the protesters.

A small group of curious bystanders watched near the meeting spot. Naperville resident Tony Loret de Mola was among them. While he’s still sorting out the movement and its aims, he is among many who are dismayed by the lopsided nature of the nation’s wealth — documented in recent calculations showing that the 400 richest individuals in the country have a combined net worth greater than that of the 150 million least wealthy — and the power that money wields over democracy.

“I really think that we’ve got to get money out of politics,” said Loret de Mola, 57, adding that campaigns are affordable only to those with huge personal wealth or the backing of major corporate interests.

That issue also is troubling for Chris Romy of Lisle, who came out to take part in the demonstration. She was enraged by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in January that lifted the cap on corporate donations to individual campaigns.

“We thought lobbying was bad before. This has made it obscene,” said Romy, who is 51 and recently re-employed. “I am not a socialist. I’m a capitalist.”

Naperville resident Zackery Fall, one of the local arm’s organizers, read a manifesto to the crowd gathered at the retail crossroads downtown. Generated by participants in the ongoing Wall Street protest, the list of grievances touches on a variety of issues, but the common thread is a broad perception that the current power dynamic is grossly unfair to most Americans. “Here’s the sad thing: this is going to get much worse before it gets better,” said Fall, 31, who told of being laid off from his government job and said he now earns $10 an hour moving boxes.

He, Alesch and fellow organizer Evelyn Thompson, a 22-year-old student and web designer from Naperville, say they are committed to continuing the local protest. Those behind the effort, now under way in some 1,500 cities, vow to persevere until the effort brings about change.

“We’re going to be occupying Naperville 24/7 on Facebook,” Alesch said. “And we’ll be here Saturday at 10 a.m.”