Occupy Denver protesters added a different wrinkle to their weekly Saturday protest ritual today by grooming a younger generation for civil disobedience.
Today's march, dubbed by organizers as the "Children's March," featured a handful of kids toting bullhorns. Many weren't shy about exercising their "mic-check" privileges.
At the prompting of their parents, a half dozen pre-teens spoke out against corporate greed and encouraged the crowd to put their money in credit unions.
But some kids who stood before the crowd that gathered on the 16th Street Mall in front of the World Trade Center around noon were a little too shy to say anything at all.
Jason Metter, 40, let his 6-year-old daughter Mira take a turn
at the mic, but she managed only a few nervous sentences before scampering back to her father's side.
Metter said he and his wife have been bringing their two daughters to the protests since the beginning.
"We don't inherit the earth from our grandparents," he said. "We have it on loan from our kids."
In total, some 40 children were among the approximately 500 protesters that marched down the 16th Street Mall, stopping briefly in front of the Federal Reserve before retreating to the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol in the early afternoon.
Weston Gentry: 303-954-1054,wgentry@denverpost.comor twitter.com/westongentry