Freeloaders, beware. You are no longer welcome at Occupy Wall Street.
Snort. Looks like OWS isn't quite the hippie commune everyone makes it out to be.
OWS's kitchen staff is fed up with the homeless people who only show up for the free food, and so they have decided to go on a three-day kitchen strike, imposing austerity measures that would make Grecians riot proud. In the grand tradition of Seinfeld's Soup Nazi, if you're not part of the protest... No soup for you:
Some protesters threatened that the high-end meals could be cut off completely if the vagrants and criminals don’t disperse.
Unhappiness with their unwelcome guests was apparent throughout the day.
“We need to limit the amount of food we’re putting out” to curb the influx of derelicts, said Rafael Moreno, a kitchen volunteer.
A security volunteer added that the cooks felt “overworked and underappreciated.”
Many of those being fed “are professional homeless people. They know what they’re doing,” said the guard at the food-storage area.
Today, a limited menu of sandwiches, chips and some hot food will be doled out -- so legitimate protesters will have a day to make arrangements for more upscale weekend meals.
So, protesters. How does it feel to have people partaking of what they did not earn by protesting Wall Street Greed? What happened to, "To each according to his needs?" Don't those homeless people have every right to your food? Aren't they, too, victims of the exploitative system that only benefits the 1%?
Honestly, I can't say I blame them. To their credit, the cooks have been preparing gourmet meals for their fellow protesters, including spaghetti bolognese, roasted beat and sheep's milk salad, and organic chicken and vegetables. I'm sure that requires quite an effort, and they want to ensure that only those people who are truly protesting--only the people who have earned their food--get to eat it.
Of course, I then must ask: if you believe in some standard of merit--namely that it's wrong for a person to receive what they did not earn--they why are you demanding that this nation's wealthy provide for your student loans, your healthcare, and your wages with money they earned through hard work?
Occupy Wall Street now faces a crossroads. But which path to choose? Viability? For surely they can't sustain the movement if homeless freeloaders consume all the expensive food. Or will they cease efforts to deny certain people food, and thereby opt for credibility and consistency of message?
Funny enough, both paths lead to dead ends. It's only a matter of which runs out first: food, or ideology.