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I participated in an anti-war protest last week in Chicago. Actually two of them. It is an exercise in putting my body where my mouth is. I am quite aware that this event can be iffy and erupt into violence. I do not wish to get a Kent-State bullet to my head, neither will I shut up. I will run though if anything starts heating up.
Here's how a protest works:
Basically, you dress warm because of the wind off the lake. It can chill deep into your bones. And when you arrive the protesters will welcome you with open arms…you become part of the fabric of the revolt. Then you take a piece of poster board and with a wide-tip Magic Marker you write whatever you want to say…a headline--- brief, succinct, and hopefully pithy.
Next you stand there, drink black coffee, and discuss the issue of war in Iraq while people in cars go by and optimistically are awakened to the issue. Some will flip you the bird, people will roll down their windows and tell you that you are a loser, some try hard not to look your way, and others give you the thumbs up.
I am learning.
The best reaction was one by a women about 45. She said that since all of the talk about war with Iraq started in July when the corporation scandals were erupting, that this rhetoric is a diversion to keep the scandal off our minds and out of Cheney's path. (Some Republican rabble-rouser tried to stir me up by suggesting that Clinton went into Kosovo as a Monica Lewinsky diversion. Yeah right. Kosovo was an ongoing civil war where the Serbs went into towns and killed the men, raped the women (to "dirty" the blood line) and needed to be stopped. It was genocide, for God's sake.)
The BIG question on everyone's minds is WHY NOW?
Bush's avenging his father is the absolute weakest argument I have ever heard for taking an entire country into war. In fact, the way Bush fights for the war in such a voracious manner has me alarmed. He is acting like a distorted madman.
Wars seem to last forever. This is not an issue to be resigned to. Get out and make your voice be heard. Let the government know you are pissed. FUCK THE WAR! Dubya & his cohorts need to work on the economy and stop spending so much time hiding in the basement counting their oil cash.
HEAR ME!
Gas prices are up. People will be freezing this winter. Work on that. Work on reining in the credit-card companies. They are out of control. They charge up to 24% interest when the prime rate is 4.75%. Stick your money in a savings account and the bank will give you, maybe 1% interest. My friends are losing their jobs. Shore up the nation before you even begin to consider a fake war to create more profits for your fat-cat buddies.
And if you try to willy-nilly the youth of our nation to fight this war, like the government did in Vietnam, maybe the revolt will strengthen to proportions unheard of before in this nation of ours. We are no longer naïve.
My new friend Adam gave me these. They replace my old protest bracelets. Beautiful, aren't they? And you can see how well Adam understands me.
I was recently speaking with a man from India. He had spent the last 12 years in the states and now was back home. I asked him what he missed most about America. He said HIGHWAYS. He said he missed getting into his car and just driving cross-country. What a beautiful answer! We are so about freedom! We are a country where you can have ideas and act on them. We can take chances. We can open a restaurant, start a new business, marry anyone we chose, and if it doesn't work out, we get to start fresh. No harm, no foul.
We are allowed to dream.
