OccupyMN Draws People from Far, Wide to Protest

Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Minneapolis Friday for the first day of the OccupyMN demonstration.

They came from big cities, suburbs and Greater Minnesota, united in dissatisfaction with current economic, and to some extent political, conditions.

Three words express why Pauline Laybourn left home in Edina to attend the first day of the OccupyMN demonstration: "The shrinking middle."

Her friend, Lorraine Picard, agreed: "The middle class is just disappearing." Both women said they worried about further generations.

Income disparity between the super-rich and the rest of the country "makes us a Third World country," said Laybourn.

Taking up a slogan of the Occupy movement, she said, "We are the 99 percent. They're trying to ignore us and they're doing a pretty good job of it."

But, added Picard, they won't for long.

The old friends—they've been of like mind since they met about 20 years ago—planned their journey to join OccupyMN carefully. They met in St. Louis Park before traveling to downtown Minneapolis together.

They joked about having white hair, but every age bracket had some representation on the plaza. Upon arriving, the pair began admiring and laughing at signs they saw. Soon enough, they were in the sign-making area to create their own.

The crowd in the plaza between Minneapolis City Hall and the Hennepin County Government Center swelled to as many as 1,000 over the noon hour, with placard-carrying protesters mixing with lunching office workers and the merely curious.

The main activity of the demonstrators was mingling, strolling and admiring each other's signs. One corner of the plaza was a sign-making workshop; on the other side was a free food stand.

OccupyMN is an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street protests over the last several weeks. As in New York, the local demonstration is set to continue indefinitely.