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Well, taking it to the sidewalks, anyway...
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resouceress and I just returned from Chicago, where we took part in the anti-war demonstrations that were organized for the third anniversary of the Iraq war. We began at 12:30 at Humbolt Park, where a feeder march was gathering. Although there were many feeders taking place, I saw a lot of people that I know at this particular one. That was good. The feeder march itself was vaguely dissatisfying, though. Can't quite put my finger on why, though I do know that the chants were very lame (lots of "Free Palestine" over and over, for instance) and directed by a single megaphone. As for the march, although it was unpermitted, the marchers were confined to the sidewalks by both the Chicago cops and the "peace police." At least no one tried to chant "Whose streets? Our streets!" as I find it ludicrous when a sidewalk-confined march does this.
After the march, there was a rally in Union Park, which was fairly typical as rallies go. And there was Food Not Bombs, serving a truly exceptional meal. Saw even more people there, like Ted and Jennie, which was nice.resourceress and I stayed through the rally, then decided to leave. We drove Jennie home and hung out with her for an hour or so, then we came home. This evening, there is a permitted march in the street down Michigan Avenue. However, I find that the appeal of marching down Michigan Ave at night on a Saturday is quite limited. This is, after all, the business district, so there will be almost nobody there on a Saturday night. If we could have marched down the street at lunchtime on a weekday, that would be far more attractive an event.
So I am glad that I went out for the demonstrations -- especially since this will be my last demo in Chicago for quite some time -- but I was less than impressed with how things went. The best parts of the day were seeing cool Chicago Anarchists one more time be fore I leave, eating the Food Not Bombs meal, and playing the five-gallon-tub drums withresourceress during the feeder march. There were a dozen or so drums and we had a good time banging on them.
Oh, one more amusing story from the day! One of the cool Anarchist people that I ran into today waslakenaiad. When she saw me, she asked if I had been in NYC a couple of weeks ago. I confirmed that I had been and she said that she thought she had seen me there. A quick comparison of dates and places verified that it was indeed me that she had seen. Friday night (3/3), after cassiopia and I had seen Rent, we went out again for a couple of hours. While we were out was when lakenaiad had seen us. Small world!
resouceress and I just returned from Chicago, where we took part in the anti-war demonstrations that were organized for the third anniversary of the Iraq war. We began at 12:30 at Humbolt Park, where a feeder march was gathering. Although there were many feeders taking place, I saw a lot of people that I know at this particular one. That was good. The feeder march itself was vaguely dissatisfying, though. Can't quite put my finger on why, though I do know that the chants were very lame (lots of "Free Palestine" over and over, for instance) and directed by a single megaphone. As for the march, although it was unpermitted, the marchers were confined to the sidewalks by both the Chicago cops and the "peace police." At least no one tried to chant "Whose streets? Our streets!" as I find it ludicrous when a sidewalk-confined march does this. After the march, there was a rally in Union Park, which was fairly typical as rallies go. And there was Food Not Bombs, serving a truly exceptional meal. Saw even more people there, like Ted and Jennie, which was nice.
resourceress and I stayed through the rally, then decided to leave. We drove Jennie home and hung out with her for an hour or so, then we came home. This evening, there is a permitted march in the street down Michigan Avenue. However, I find that the appeal of marching down Michigan Ave at night on a Saturday is quite limited. This is, after all, the business district, so there will be almost nobody there on a Saturday night. If we could have marched down the street at lunchtime on a weekday, that would be far more attractive an event.So I am glad that I went out for the demonstrations -- especially since this will be my last demo in Chicago for quite some time -- but I was less than impressed with how things went. The best parts of the day were seeing cool Chicago Anarchists one more time be fore I leave, eating the Food Not Bombs meal, and playing the five-gallon-tub drums with
resourceress during the feeder march. There were a dozen or so drums and we had a good time banging on them.Oh, one more amusing story from the day! One of the cool Anarchist people that I ran into today was
lakenaiad. When she saw me, she asked if I had been in NYC a couple of weeks ago. I confirmed that I had been and she said that she thought she had seen me there. A quick comparison of dates and places verified that it was indeed me that she had seen. Friday night (3/3), after cassiopia and I had seen Rent, we went out again for a couple of hours. While we were out was when lakenaiad had seen us. Small world!
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