Atlanta Progressive News

By Scott Brown, Special to The Atlanta Progressive News; Photograph by Gloria Tatum, Senior Staff Writer

(APN) ATLANTA — Last week, former US Army Lieutenant Dan Choi visited Occupy Atlanta on behalf of the progressive blogging site Firedoglake, after the blog selected Occupy Atlanta as one of five national occupations to be awarded with a military-grade command post tent for their activist work in the community.

Choi delivered the tent to the Higher Ground Empowerment Center, a church in Atlanta’s Vine City neighborhood.  Occupy Atlanta previously saved the church from foreclosure, and it still serves as one of their current occupation sites.  There, Choi took part in the celebratory raising of the tent.

Firedoglake awarded tents primarily based on the community actions of the nominated Occupy movements, among which Occupy Atlanta was deemed one of those most active.

Choi gained notoriety after the US military discharged him for coming out as homosexual.  Choi did so in bold opposition to, and defiance of, the military’s [now-former] Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.

He says Occupy Atlanta was chosen primarily due to numerous successes at stopping area foreclosures.

“Just the very act of sitting and not moving has done so much to educate people about the situation with the banks here and what they do,” Choi said, citing, as he frequently does, the importance of the Occupy movement in raising public awareness of important issues on both the national and local levels.

“What we’re doing here is changing the perception of what this movement is by saying community-based and locally we can show that this movement is more than just what you see on CNN and FOX news, but it really does matter to the people that know the homes and people that are in them,” Choi said.

Choi, who has already visited numerous other occupations, says that after leaving Atlanta he plans to continue to visit other Occupy movements across the country to support those who continue to fight for 99 percent.

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