Mom Ditches Four Kids And Spouse To Hit Wall Street protest

I’m naturally drawn to protests. I will cross the street to get the flyer some patchouli-soaked hippie is handing out protesting injustice in the animal lab at the university. I used to live blocks from the U.S. Capitol and loved the variety of protests we got to see there. Intactivists were definitely my favorite. And I even protested my own church body once, taking my infant with me. And yet, this woman who has ditched her husband and four kids to protest at Occupy Wall Street does not come off well in this article:

A married mother of four from Florida ditched her family to become part of the raggedy mob in Zuccotti Park — keeping the park clean by day and keeping herself warm at night with the help of a young waiter from Brooklyn.

”I’m not planning on going home,” an unapologetic Stacey Hessler, 38, told The Post yesterday.

”I have no idea what the future holds, but I’m here indefinitely. Forever,” said Hessler, whose home in DeLand sits 911 miles from the tarp she’s been sleeping under.

Hessler — who ironically is married to a banker — arrived 12 days ago and planned to stay for a week, but changed her plans after cozying up to some like-minded radicals, including Rami Shamir, 30, a waiter at a French bistro in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

She swears she’s not romantically involved with her new friend.

I am pretty neutral on the Occupy Wall Streeters myself. I totally agree with the dislike of bank bailouts but don’t agree with their sentiments toward further bailouts. Having said that, I was about to don dredlocks, a Marxist shirt, and take my own children to downtown D.C. when I learned that they’d set up a childcare pen. This is a great way to get a more diverse group of protesters — childcare. How hard is it to protest something when you’re in college or just out and barely have any responsibilities (much less a good job?). Not hard at all! That’s why protests are always full of young folks. And, speaking as a veteran reporter of protests, that’s what was so shocking about the Tea Party protests — they were inhabited mostly by people who appeared to be employed and have children and grandchildren. I’m not saying you don’t see employed parents or grandparents at other protests, but it was weird to see so many of them.

In any case, that’s my advice for protest organizers. Get a childcare pen and watch your ranks swell. No matter the issue.

As for Hessler … we all want a break from our banker husband and four kids (metaphorically speaking) but I hope she was just exaggerating with the “forever” remark. That absentee parent thing can really affect little ones.

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