On November 10, I traveled down to Philadelphia to cover the story of the Truth-Freedom-Prosperity “Warming Station” at the city’s Occupy Movement. This is where Occupiers can stop in for a warm cup of tea and enjoy some open-minded discussion with liberty-lovers.
While not terribly liberty-loving (almost everyone I met there was a Constitution-worshiper), the group’s members are far more in-touch with the problems of government intervention than the rest of the Occupy Movement.
The group is leading by example, but not always in the ways I’d like to see. For example, they build a structure and offer the blueprints to others so that anyone can emulate the successful project. On the other hand, they intend to move tomorrow to make way for the construction of a multi-million-dollar, taxpayer-funded skating rink when asked by city police. How nice.
Before building the warming station, TFP became known to the rest of the Occupation as “the Ron Paul Tent.” This new structure, all black with no decoration or political signage, appears to be an attempt on TFP’s part to distance its former image from its new one: from blatant to subtle.
Though I realize that no individual speaks for the tent, I was not impressed by the way I heard one man bash Voluntaryism as impractical. So much for offering open-minded discussion.
Once-hated, now accepted; the group’s outreach efforts have been strengthened by volunteers who publish a weekly newspaper covering stories from the Philadelphia Occupation.
Occupations around the country have something to learn from the group TFP–some things to emulate and others to avoid!
