Who said the moral and political authenticity of OWS is determined by the actual occupation of a physical space unrelated to the reality of seasonal weather at the geographical venue of its protest against perceived economic unfairness and income and wealth inequity?
Critics and would be "friends" seem to be unilaterally creating the criteria or benchmarks for measuring the "success" of OWS. Persons participating in various demonstrations in "Wall Street" across our nation and throughout the word have already achieved success. OWS has awakened and raised the consciousness of a wide cross-section of people in our country to some of the fundamental reasons for our high unemployment, continuing housing foreclosures and disparity in equal opportunity to participate in the economic abundance of America.
When the weather conditions become adverse in the geography of the venue of their demonstration and the number of people physically participating at such venue significantly diminishes or no one at all choses to participate during such adverse weather, the authenticity of the content of the message of OWS does not diminish. Adapting the FORM of OWS protest compatible with climate reality at any given time and place will be an index of the political maturity of the "leadership" or "General Assembly" of OWS.
More important to the continued success of OWS will be the extent to which, like participants in the "Arab Spring" they creatively use the multi-platforms of communication with one another and the public at large associated with the social networks of Facebook, Twitter, et al.
Although from print and electronic media photos participating demonstrators appear to include a wide range of age groups, the predominant impression is that the majority of participants are young people, especially students. As such they should publicly declare politically and morally who they are. They appear to be the "Children of the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr". They can proudly wear that "banner" as long as they commit themselves to non-violent disobedience.
The greatest potential danger to the continued legitimacy, political and moral integrity of OWS is a failure to exercise the necessary discipline to keep their protest non-violent and prevent its authenticity from being corrupted or "hijacked" by third parties seeking to wrap themselves with the imprimatur of OWS for purposes separate and different from OWS; no matter how, on the surface, such separate third parties appear to be compatible.
This potential threat constitutes a greater challenge than the seasonal change of weather. If the message of OWS remains uncorrupted, they deserve our support, whether they physically continue to stay outside during adverse weather or not.
The message of OWS is not dependent or determined by outside temperature or rain or snow. It will be determined by the continued moral and political integrity of their message and the extent to which participants demonstrate their unwavering commitment to peaceful protest and non-violence. This would entitle them to call themselves "Children of The Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr."