I want to respond to Reagan Knopp’s In My View submission of Dec. 29. I was one of the protesters occupying Rep. Greg Walden’s office on Dec. 5. I have not been elected to represent anybody; I represent only myself. Walden has been elected to represent us in Congressional District 2. Unfortunately, he is unable to do so because he is too busy doing the bidding of the special interests that fund his campaigns.

Knopp chooses to voice her disapproval of the Occupy movement, and specifically Occupy Walden, by disparaging the participants and name-calling. So I am checking to see if the shoe fits. First, she speaks of the protesters as the younger generation asking for handouts. I am retired and have paid into the system for 42 years and counting and don’t need handouts. Interestingly, one of the younger protesters in Walden’s office, a student, spent the time productively studying for a calculus test. That doesn’t sound like whiny, spoiled brat-hood.

She describes the protesters as unpatriotic and un-American. That shoe pinches and I won’t wear it. The United States of America was born of protest. All social, economic and environmental progress that this country has made was due to individuals coming together to protest the status quo, including taxation without representation; slavery; civil rights abuses of women, children, people of color, the LGBT community and laborers; and abuse of the environment. Go to an Occupy movement rally or general meeting and talk to actual occupiers about what they are about.

When will I learn to behave? I will behave when those responsible for the economic collapse in 2008 are prosecuted. I will behave when we have clean and fair elections and when money doesn’t buy you your own member of Congress. Civil disobedience is an honored method of protest in this country, and if ignoring what is wrong is behaving, we should all be misbehaving, loudly and often.

Pathetic doesn’t describe the Occupy movement. Pathetic describes how real people have been marginalized by giving corporations personhood; all the rights of people but none of the responsibility. Criminal? Well, yes, I did commit trespass. Let’s compare that to the crimes committed by those who lied to the American people and the world and brought us nine years of war in Iraq, and who have continued immoral torture and detention of persons in violation of our own Constitution and the Geneva Convention.

Knopp wrote that occupiers are represented by left-wing groups, unions, socialists, communists and the Democratic party. As far as involvement by left-wing groups, I am a member of a human dignity organization that promotes equal rights for all people and works within our community for social, economic and environmental justice. I do promote equal rights for all people and work within our community for social, economic and environmental justice. I do not understand why this would be considered either left or right. It should be central to each of our lives as members of a community. Public employee unions, like any labor union, are there to give the worker a voice through collective bargaining. The labor movement brought us the weekend, fair wages, and due process in the workplace. It is the reason why maybe you didn’t have to work 10-hour days on your first job at age 14. I guess I’m a socialist in that I believe it is society’s responsibility to provide a basic social safety net for children, the elderly, the incapacitated and the sick. Communities should provide quality public education, libraries, health, safety, parks, water, air, transportation, etc. We could pay for it, too, if we didn’t pour most of our tax dollars into the war machine and if the rich paid their fair share. Both Democrats and Republicans suffer from the undue influence of corporate lobbying and unlimited campaign financing. Communists? Calling occupiers communist is just silly.