NEW YORK (PIX11)—
38-year-old Stacey Hessler said it was important for the future of her four children to leave them in Florida with their dad for a bit, so she could join the "Occupy Wall Street" movement and protest against corporate greed. But she lashed out at a New York Post article that characterized her as a 'wayward wife'.Hessler had not seen the Post story, when PIX 11 approached her Friday at her campsite in Zuccotti Park, in lower Manhattan. When we asked how her husband, Curtis--who's a banker--feels about her packing up to spend time at the outdoor protest, she initially said, "He supports me." But then, she quickly added, "God. Now I know the article sucks. Thank you. I don't want to talk."
When PIX 11 pressed her about the way she was portrayed in the story, with the first line saying she had "ditched" her family, Hessler dropped an F-bomb and grabbed the newspaper article out of my hands. She then conferred with a fellow camper, Rami Shamir, a Brooklyn waiter the Post said she was "cozying up" with. Shamir angrily replied, "They should come down here, instead of cozying up in their towers!" Another protester slammed us, "You're trying to slander her, because she has kids. And she's a good mom."
Hessler, who grew up on Long Island and settled in DeLand, Florida, arrived at Zuccotti Park twelve days ago. Her oldest child is a son, 17 year old Peyton. She also has three daughters, Kennedy, 15; Sullivan, 13; and Veda, who is 7. Her decision to join the Occupy Wall Street movement, which started five weeks ago and, at times, has involved clashes with the NYPD, was hailed by one grandmother we met in Zuccotti Park. Patricia Curtis was a civil rights activist and anti-war protester in the 1960's. "She's setting a good example for her kids," Curtis told PIX 11.
A camper who calls himself "Sage"--who's been here since the protest began--said Hessler's presence here was really intense. "The amount of emotion it must have taken her to battle between her natural instinct to take care of her familyÂ….and what she must have believed was a moral obligation to support a cause that was bigger than her family unitÂ….when you play the role of a mother in a family, you know, there's sort of this unsaid assumption you're not allowed to have intensely political beliefs," Sage observed.
Among the celebrities who showed up at the site this week were actor-brothers, Billy and Alec Baldwin, and on Friday, hip hop mogul, Russell Simmons, made a return visit to Zuccotti Park, carrying several coats from his "Phat Pharm" fashion line, offering them to protesters who may be feeling the chill. When asked about the Florida mom camping out, he said of Hessler, "I think she cares a lot about this country, she loves this country, I don't think she was campaigning against her banker husband. She may be concerned with her banker husband's bosses who control our government," Simmons said.
After she talked briefly with PIX, Hessler returned to her duties--cleaning her sleeping space and setting up a table for "Non-Violent" communication sessions,
which focus on empathy, mediation, and trainings. Russell Simmons passed by and gave her a shout-out. "She's here because she cares about the country, right?" Simmons said to Hessler.
