Today, I went to the Chicago antibush protest that was held as part of the World Can’t Wait demonstrations across the United States.
The protest was held in the Federal Plaza, in the same place where, during the first Gulf War, I sat for a day with an antiwar protester holding vigil.
I’ve been writing for over six years about the dangers that George W. Bush presents to the United States of America. For tonight, I’ll just leave it at saying that if you don’t realize the terrible threat Bush poses to the American way of life, you haven’t been paying attention. The crisis Bush presents is obvious and well known to those Americans who care.
Tonight, instead of focusing on those problems, I want to take time to thank the people here in Chicago who turned out to protest, and the people across America who did the same in their own communities. These people are America’s best hope for turning back from the path of darkness down which we are being led.
To those who could not participate in today’s protests, don’t worry. It’s not too late to join in the movement to resist the radical Bush agenda – and your efforts have never been more necessary.
hey, I saw someone in the crowd and said to myself, that guy looks like jclifford, last photographed in front of the white house…..nah, couldn’t be.
Fox Channel 32 did a rather nice and surprisingly lengthy piece on the 10 o’clock news showing street theater costumes. I saw a Channel 5 truck parked beside Federal Plaza, and talked to an intern from the Trib, but didn’t see any coverage on the 10:00 news from the major networks. Chicago police estimated the crowd at 1500, I guessed a thousand.
interesting things:
Two women from the street jumped in with us while we were stopped waiting to clear an intersection, they decided to march when they saw us.
I stayed towards the back of the march hoping it would be slower. One of the marchers offered to sell me a newpaper with revolution on the front page–turned out to be a card-carrying communist–the first one I have ever met. I asked why we needed revolution, and she thought a minute and said someone wrote something about it in the paper. Sigh. My first genuine pinko commie, and no fiery rhetoric. Workers of the World, get out your bifocals.
Passing out literature at the plaza, I was accosted by two well dressed young guys who introduced their topic by saying “We want to kill some Arabs.” Continuing, they said they also wanted to tell Arabs to “go fuck themselves.” I’m old enough to be their mother, and I have to listen to that kind of language from strangers on the street? I mentioned to them that we were against secret torture, secret prisons, secret arrests, and then mentioned the military commissions act.
They were law students they informed me condescendingly, gesturing to the John Marshall Law School opposite the plaza. The law is unconsitutional, they said. None of that even matters. Read the legal opinion from last month, they said. But the law was passed this week, I reminded them. Oh, that doesn’t matter, they said and it doesn’t matter what Gonzalez says about the intention of the administration to claim war powers, the bill was just rhetoric. So the president lied? I wondered. Well, there was no true intention to take away habeus corpus and habeus corpus has never been taken away because that would be unconstitutional. As law students, they could tell me passing the bill was just the way to get the system to work. Can someone explain this to me?
I tell you what I think about John Marshall Law Students. First, when they said they want to kill Arabs and have Arabs fuck themselves, I think that’s what they’re about and how THEIR system works. Second, do you know why John Marshall Law Students don’t go to the beach? Because the kitty cats try to bury them in the sand. And third, do you know why John Marshall Law Students wear neckties? It’s so the foreskin doesn’t creep up over their heads.
Great comments ih! The protest i went to was very small and unnoticeable from the street, held at an overcrowded construction site (the Courthouse Building being renovated), in a college town with gobs of traffic crawling by, and the Democratic campaign headquarters one block away knew nothing about it until some passers by mentioned it to one of the workers around noon. i was disappointed, but made some new acquaintences.
Sheesh! Those John Marshall law students should hit the books before they spout off. Habeas corpus was suspended by Abraham Lincoln. It can be done because it has been done.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/west/chi-0610060228oct06,1,2890361.story
Looks like the Trib wrote a nice article. The byline is by staff reporters, so it looks like the intern I talked to doesn’t get a byline. I originally approached her because of the interesting combination that she was covered and also standing near the front taping a speaker. She didn’t have any literature and was unaware of the WCW website, so I was able to give her a flyer–looks like some of it got into the story. Always be nice to and make things easy for the press!
http://www.pvolley.net/
Met this guy filming during the Chicago march. He has posted his photos and some films:
http://www.pvolley.net/protest/protest1.htm
Just glancing at the photos, I didn’t see either myself or anyone who looked like jClifford. Peregrin was there too, right? Haven’t delved into the films yet.