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56-year-old cancer survivor ‘disappointed’ with Obama, walks 200 miles to join ‘Occupy DC’ protests

Vishal Ganesan Contributor
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When Barack Obama ran for president, 56-year-old Carrie Stone thought things would be different. She thought she was supporting a candidate who would bring real change.

Now she says Obama didn’t deliver what he advertised. And to make her point, Stone walked 200 miles from her West Virginia home to join the “Occupy DC” protests, arriving on Wednesday.

“I voted for Obama, but I’ve been disappointed,” Stone told The Daily Caller. “If only he were a socialist like all these tea partiers say, maybe then things would be better. He broke his promises.”

Against a backdrop of college students, out-of-work graduates, and homeless park-dwellers, Stone sticks out like a sore thumb. The bespectacled and slightly built 56-year-old grandmother’s 9-day journey to Washington left her full of the kinds of aches and pains that endurance runners are familiar with.

A self-employed business owner and breast cancer survivor, the long-time progressive activist said she is determined to make the world a better place for her college-age daughter and her grandchildren.

Stone recalled being a single mother in law school in the 1970s. She said she and her peers were idealistic about changing the world then, and knew their hard work would bring success.

But today, she says, things are different. (RELATED: Leading House Dem: ‘Occupy Wall Street,’ Van Jones part of ‘American Spring’)

“I was from a poor family,” she told TheDC. “I was one of ten and yet I was the first one in my family to go to college. My daughter is in college and she’s struggling.

“I know my grandchildren won’t have the same luxury that I did.”

Stone said her own business has been struggling since the recession hit in 2008, forcing her to live day-to-day. Eventually, she decided to do what she has done in the past when times got tough: join a protest and make her voice heard.

“I protested Vietnam a bit, protested the first Iraq War under George H.W. Bush, and I’ve done a lot of gay rights activism, but it’s hard not to be cynical. Sometimes I felt like I couldn’t change anything.”

Stone, whose 200-mile journey included driving rain and inhaling coal dust belched from oncoming trucks, hopes this time her protest will accomplish something.

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