"For the first time, what's happening in the streets is happening in the opera house." – Philip Glass

Scenes in Lower Manhattan this morning. November 17, 2011.  Police barricade Wall Street.  Yesterday morning in a surprise raid, Mayor Bloomberg ordered the police to remove the protesters from a public park – forcing them to take to the streets.

"Unfortunately, there's always a good time to do this opera. It's just the way it is. But never has it been so close at hand."

"My position is that this is free speech and free assembly.  This is Bill of Rights stuff. This is what this country is built on.  And what these people do by acting in this way, they bring back to us the importance of our basic freedoms."

Download the Interview with Leonard Lopate here.

The New York Observer covers the story in today's paper here.