So, Sarah, what I hear you saying is that your sign said things about you that aren’t true, but that you’re perplexed as to why people are labeling you incorrectly based on that misleading sign?

It was taken on October 15 2011, at Occupy Vancouver. To be there that day, I traveled 6 hours by bus and ferry with my baby. I left my older daughter (age 6)at home with her grandparents.

I live in a rural community (pop. 2000) on the Sunshine Coast of BC, Canada. Since the pic went viral, I have enjoyed participating in several threads about my sign. As it happens, that was only one of my three signs. My other, larger banners stated:
“rEVOLution!”
and
“Stand Together/Advance Together/Occupy Together”.

The controversial sign under discussion was a response to the labels I had been hearing used by the mainstream media to categorize and invalidate all Occupiers. Yes, the label, “Left Wing Nut Job” was specifically in response to Kevin O’Leary’s shameful interview.

Ironically and quite amusingly, I have myself been labelled by people who are offended by my use of labels on my sign.

I am an aging hippy/punk/freak who now participates in building my own community by working part time and volunteering in the area of maternal and child development. Middle class, well perhaps we were back before 2008, but the economic woes have pushed us many steps back financially, and now we struggle as virtually everyone else does, to make ends meet for our family of four.

I definitely identify as a left-wing nut job; I was proud to be part of that particular mob on that day (and on other days, other demonstrations).

I happen NOT to be an anarchist; I am straight.

There. Does that cover it?

The best laugh I had today came from the post on this thread which cites the 4 clues to my economic status:

>>>>>>>
four signals of middle-class status:

1) The layered and shaped haircut that will require frequent trimming.
2) The hand-knit look of the baby hat.
3) White outdoor baby clothes with a texture that will pick up dirt.
4) No current or personal needs noted in the sign.
>>>>>>>><

Whew!
1) Thank you for noticing my nice haircut. First haircut for ages. My friend did it for me for $20. Looking pretty shaggy these days 🙂
2) Grandma knit the hat for my baby girl (not gender-neutral – aaahhhhhhh!!! I should have grabbed her green or yellow hat before we dashed out the door!)
3) The white baby coat was on sale at Superstore. Yep, gets dirty.
4) Needs? I have a few…

Anyway, I thought I'd drop by and contribute to the discussion by letting you all know, that, yes, the "lady" has a clue….

Peace,
Sarah Blythe Pond

She’s spent a month in the last year in Canada, and watched the election results live with me on Skype and there were aspects of the election that she understood better than I. She’s better informed about Canada’s political system than the vast majority of Canadians.

I would suggest that she was saying we “embraced” Harper by giving him a majority government when he had only a minority. And it’s sad that, with the votes split between four parties on the left and one party on the right, the right won the election, but it’s simple math, frankly. The real problem, the real “embrace”, came from not enough people voting when it was so critical that we did, and not enough people being politically engaged when it was so critical that we would be. It was an embrace of the status quo.

I don’t blame you for not understanding how our electoral system works. It is quite different than yours. Harper’s party won about 39% of the popular vote in the last federal election, the NDP about 30% the liberals about 19%, the Bloc ~3% and the Green’s about 4%. The unfortunate part of having a multi-party system of government is that it’s not *really* majority rules. So what this means is that the MAJORITY of voters don’t actually approve of Harper, because the MAJORITY of voters actually voted for different parties. I would hardly say that we *embrace* Harper’s authoritarianism and your use of that word also demonstrates what you don’t know about our system. Only 3 out of 13 provinces and territories have Conservative premiers, the rough equivalent of your state governors. Despite much complaining from people who don’t agree with Harper or his political vision of what Canada should be (which as far as I can tell is the USA), he has relatively little power over most things, even though he currently has a majority government (which is determined by the number of seats his party holds, not the number of votes they get).

While I agree that there is a difference between liberal and radical, I would hesitate to even use the term liberal in conversation with you without first making sure that we even mean the same thing. I would say that having a more liberal society does tend towards a more laissez-faire attitude in general. Take the difference in attitude towards multiculturalism for instance. So while liberal and radical don’t mean the same thing, a more liberal society(in the way that I mean liberal, which I’m not sure is the same as you) is more likely to embrace or perhaps peacefully tolerate those fringe groups. Thus the naming of such groups doesn’t cause the same sort of reaction. Being called a hippy or a radical or a punk here just well… so what, it’s hardly an insult. I would maintain that the middle class for which you have so much disdain has a different level of tolerance here.

If the reaction to anti-globalization you’re talking about is the police brutality during the G20 protest in Toronto, I would say a few things. The brutality was highly criticized by both the citizens of our country and our media. The city of Toronto and one event do not represent the attitude of our entire country.

spartan, I’m trying to stay engaged here with very limited time. Bear with me.

No problem of course Stephanie, and I’m tight on time myself. I have no illusions that I’m a clear writer and I think my comments are a little bit all over the board here, but I appreciate again the detail you’ve provided. Your points have been rattling around in my brain the last couple days and I hope I can find time, mostly for my own sake, to try and lay out my points more clearly.