NASHVILLE — It was a short occupation, but for the protesters, it was sweet.

Occupy Nashville drew several hundred demonstrators to Legislative Plaza for an hour and a half of speeches, songs, group chants and shared anxiety over the state America finds itself in today. Participants swapped stories about layoffs, lost health-care coverage, multiple deployments to the battlefronts, crippling student loan debts, and, most of all, a growing suspicion that their government cares more about corporate money than it does about them.

“I’m angry at the way corporations have taken over our country,” said Suanne Martin of Madison, who arrived an hour early for the noon protest. “I’m on disability. I struggle to make ends meet. I’m here because I want to see if people can change things.”