While Occupy Atlanta stresses it doesn’t have leaders, we found two serving as spokespeople for the group: Tim Franzen, 34, who works for the American Friends Service Committee, and Rob Call, 23, a 2009 international affairs Georgia Tech graduate from Snellville who says he works as an unpaid intern for the ACLU because he can’t find a job.
We talked with both when we checked in with the Woodruff Park campers on Thursday. (We only got a few minutes with Franzen before he had to leave for a planned rally at Phipps Plaza. Occupy Buckhead fizzled somewhat after some participants apparently lost their way on MARTA.)
Both men, along with every other park protester we spoke to, were unfailingly polite and effervescently friendly.
Tim Franzen
Q: So this is Day 14?
A: Thursday is Day 14.
Q: Today is Thursday.
A: Oh, my God. It feels like we’ve been out here several years.
Q: What exactly do you want?
A: I want an Atlanta where we don’t have wealth consolidated to the point that it muffles people’s voices.
Q: What does that mean?
A: See that Georgia Pacific sign? That’s the eye of Sauron looking down on us.
Q: The eye of Sauron?
A: From “Lord of the Rings.” I’m making an analogy. I’m not an insane person. That’s the Koch brothers up there. [Koch Industries, based in Wichita, Kan., owns Georgia-Pacific lumber, among a slew of other products, according to a 2010 New Yorker profile of the billionaire brothers at the helm.] The only way to live in a just society is to give the Koch brothers an opportunity to divest from their overabundance in the most humane way possible.
Q: What do you mean by “humane?”
A: I’m not ready to literally eat the rich. If things go on the way they’ve been going there may be nothing else. Certainly like, taxes, is the most humane theory.
Q: So you want higher taxes?
A: There needs to be space created for the super rich people, to have their wealth taken away and redistributed and spread around to those who need it.
Q: How should that happen?
A: It’s not like I have a 20-page plan. I’m a guy in a park right now. I would think the greatest minds in Atlanta can come up with something. The No. 1 priority list of any society is the well-being of everybody.
Q: What are you accomplishing?
A: We’ve accomplished the creation of a microphone in Atlanta. Every day we’re able to talk about the issues.
Q: What are you accomplishing besides talking?
A: We’re building a collective vision. It’s intergenerational.
Q: Before Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed gave the OK for protesters to stay, were you ready to go to jail?
A: I would have been prepared to go.
Q: Were you sort of hoping there would be arrests?
A: It would have been good for the movement.
Rob Call
Q: Why are you here?
A: I feel like we’re drawing attention to issues that have been sort of hush hush. Being here is raising awareness to these issues. After Tech, I went to Brazil. I taught social studies for an English-speaking school. I got back from Brazil in 2010. I was thinking I would get a job in some sort of nonprofit.
Q: How long are you planning to stay? Do you have an exit strategy?
A: I’m here for the long haul. My exit strategy is politicians and structures of governance actually changing. When I see change that I like, maybe I’ll pack up.
Q: What sort of change?
A: It would be nice to see state funding for MARTA. It’d be nice if MARTA riders didn’t have their fares jacked up. Other changes I’d like to see locally is [repeal of state legislation aimed at illegal immigrants]. It’d be nice if the Department of Defense was actually a Department of Defense, not offense.
Q: Did you oppose the U.S. Navy SEALs going into Pakistan after Osama bin Laden?
A: Yes. Al-Qaida was already pretty much dead. We haven’t declared war in Pakistan. I’d like to see the end of decades of war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Uganda, Libya.
Q: You might be able to cross Libya off the list. They got Gadhafi this morning.
A: They did? Awesome!
[After the interview, on Friday President Barack Obama announced plans for the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.]
Q: What impact is the protest having?
A: A way of relating to other people. It’s definitely a collaborative effort. Everybody here wants things to change. I want corporate influence on the political process outlawed and enforced. The amount [individuals can contribute] should be lower.
Q: Lowered to what?
A: I don’t know. These are really tricky questions. We’re here working on solutions. The civil rights movement took 10 or 15 years.
Q: Will you be living in Woodruff Park 10 or 15 years from now?
A: I’m hopeful things can change before that.
Q: What sort of impact is the movement having on Wall Street?
A: They’re scared.
Q: Are they changing policies or regulations out of fear?
A: I don’t know. I have to believe they are.
Q: What do you know about Robert Woodruff?
A: He was a bigwig with Coke, and pretty much everything in Atlanta is named after him because he made a lot of donations. I feel like I’d oppose him. I don’t know much about him.
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