*** Firsthand report on Aug. 23 protest in Chicago with pictures ***

prolesunited

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Sun Aug-24-03 11:22 AM
Original message

Edited on Sun Aug-24-03 11:47 AM by prolesunited

"End the cccupation of Iraq. Bring the troops home now" was the theme of the Saturday afternoon protest organized by the Chicago Coalition Against War & Racism http://www.chicagoantiwar.org/. About 1,000 people turned out to show their support for the troops and their opposition to Bush's policies.

It was a postcard-perfect day with the sun shining and the temperatures in the low 80s -- a great day for a march and an even better day because the streets were packed with shoppers and tourists.

Protesters gathered in Federal Plaza to hear a variety of speakers, which included parents of troops currently stationed in Iraq. As you will see from the pictures, the event drew quite a mix of people -- seasoned protesters, families with strollers, suburban-looking types, black-clad anarchists, college students, gays in all shapes, sizes and colors. Volunteers from the Dean, Kucinich and Clark campaigns were visible as well with their campaign T-shirts and distribution of literature. It touches my soul when I see so many different types of people come together for a common cause, truly demonstrating how artificial the boundaries we set up with one another are.

The police were out in full force, but they weren't dressed in riot gear as they had been for the one on April 5 and the end of March protest that closed down Lakeshore Drive. The whole event was quite peaceful and I didn't see any confrontations. Basically, they were just there to clear the way for the march. I made it a point to thank several of them afterward, which I think surprised and gratified them.

We marched down State Street, which is the heart of the city's shopping area, past the Sun-Times, Tribune and NBC buildings and down Michigan Avenue. For those of you not familiar with Chicago, "The Magnificient Mile" is the city's most exclusive, upscale area for the monied class. It was exhilarating marching past such stores as Bloomingdale�s, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and their respective clientele with our message.

Overall, the crowd was quite receptive. We received many honks of support and thumbs up -- that's how we knew they just weren't upset because traffic was tied up. It had a feeling of a parade, with people just stopping on the sidewalk to watch us go by. Some clapped, while others held up peace signs in response to those we flashed them. Quite a few tourists took pictures. As we marched on, our contingent grew bigger as some people stepped off the sidewalk to join us in the street. Talk about a movement!

We ended in the park in front of the Drake Hotel and next to Oak Street Beach. A few more people spoke, thanking us for our participation and saying that more events are being planned for September and October urging an end to the occupation.

One of my highlights for the day was stopping in the middle of the march to call into the "Guy James Show." BTW, thanks for having me on. I'm not sure how it sounded on the airwaves because there was so much going on around me and I could hardly hear them on my end.

The one difficulty was that we had marched for a couple of miles, but there was no plan or organized effort to get us back to the starting point, where my car was parked in a nearby garage. Many carried signs provided by event organizers and left them there. However, I liked my sign and didn't want to give it up. I ended up having my own private march through the city as I worked my was through the crowds and back to my car. That was a pretty intense experience that I'm going to write more about later.

Here are my signs. I had started a thread about this earlier in the week and there were so many fantastic suggestions that I had a hard time deciding. Giving credit where it's due, special thanks to Robbien for the "Support Bush*" one and sistersofmercy for the vacation idea. Also, MoPaul was kind enough to send me a hi-res image of his work for the sign. I received a number of positive comments on the sign noting how effective they were and I have thank DU for that.