Occupiers on K Street directly after being evicted from McPherson Square
Listen to Jason McGaughey:
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“We have to fight for our futures,” Jason McGaughey told TheFightBack Saturday at Occupy DC shortly before tensions rose and things escalated, at times tipping over into scenes of mayhem.
Standing beside a police barricade in the middle of McPherson Square as U.S. Park Police combed through a large swath of the encampment, the 26-year-old Illinois native continued, “I don’t have any children. One day I would like to. But to be honest I think it would be very difficult for me to bring a child into this world.”
McGaughey discussed issues ranging from corporatism (which Italian dictator Benito Mussolini said was more aptly termed fascism) to global warming to U.S. imperialism to the attack on civil liberties here at home.
Jason McGaughey at McPherson Square
In September, when TheFightBack first interviewed McGaughey at Occupy Wall Street, he had recently given up his job working with individuals with developmental disabilities in order to join the then-nascent Occupy movement. McGaughey made the personal sacrifice because he was frustrated at having to explain to his clients why their services were being cut, why their country didn’t care about them, he said.
Back at McPherson Square Saturday, McGaughey said, “We’re not giving up. We’re not going anywhere. Occupy Wall Street. Occupy DC. Occupy everything. We’re not only just fighting for ourselves, but we’re fighting for all the generations that are to come after us.”
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Occupy Wall Street: A Movement is Born, Sept. 30, 2011