ChiTown Lady
22nd March 2003, 04:31
Drop Bush – Not Bombs!!! & Chicago Rocks!!!!
Yesterday – Thursday, when Bush started his shit in Iraq, since we had already decided to have massive protests here in Chicago I went downtown to be a part of that effort.
I got to Federal Plaza at a little after 11:00 a.m. At that time there were only a hand full of people there, maybe 30 – mostly high school kids and a couple of adults over 40. They had quite a large drum brigade doing – a lot of kids were carrying drums, with a few whistles and sticks to make noise too. By 12:30 (during the lunch rush) we decided to take the drum brigade etc. on a march down various downtown streets. – starting with the financial district up Lasalle street. Then down many more streets – we walked at least 20 blocks, up and down many streets to cover most of the downtown area. We got back to Federal Plaza after that first march by about 2:30 p.m.
By about 3:00 p.m., factions from a few of the colleges started showing up as well as a few more older adults (including some senior citizens), increasing the numbers in Federal Plaza to about 200 people. At that time about 100 of us took it on a march again specifically to pass by and stop at 5 of the downtown college campuses to pick up more people from those school – by of course chanting outside to encourage them to walk-out. Someone gave me a sign to carry just before we started the march - which said “5:00 p.m. Rally at Adams & Dearborn” (the location of Federal Plaza), which I displayed to anyone and everyone we passed on our way, including showing it in restaurant windows. We picked up at least 100 more people in that effort, including some people off the street and returned with our increased numbers by about 4:15 p.m.
During both marches and at Federal Plaza, people were chanting things like:
“Drop Bush – Not Bombs”
“Bush, get off it – We know this war’s for profit”
“Hey Bush, what do ya say – How many kids did you kill today?”
Over the next hour dozens and dozens more people started showing up at Federal Plaza in support of the protest effort (mostly college students), but also business people in suits, women with children, and even more senior citizens. One little old lady there was so cute. She was about 70-80 years old, no more than 4 feet tall, and was wearing a long winter coat that was covered by about 30 different anti-war buttons.
Unfortunately I had to leave at about 5:15 to go pick my 10-year old daughter up from school. This was most unfortunate since the main rally in Federal Plaza was slated to start at 5:00 p.m., so I missed that. But we decided to watch the 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. news casts just to see what was going on both here and there (in Iraq), only to find out that the eventual crowd at Federal Plaza (which was still going strong by 10:30 p.m. when the news was being broadcast here, had increased in numbers to an estimated 4,000 plus people. The newspaper this morning gave estimates that the crowd was actually 5,000 – 6,000 demonstrators. The demonstrators were reported to have taken it on a march again and had block off the intersection of Chicago and Michigan Avenues in the Magnificent Mile “Rich peoples” shopping district, and had also blocked off both the north and southbound traffic on Lake Shore Drive – in the interest of waging the “No Business as Usual” campaign by disrupting the evening rush hour. One interviewed demonstrator said just that - “No Business as Usual.” And at 7:30 p.m. one commuter on Lake Shore Drive said, at 7:30 p.m., that she had been trying unsuccessfully to get down that street since 5:00 p.m. Massive chaos for the police – evidently, as last I saw from the TV they had surrounded large numbers of demonstrators with riot police and were making hundreds of arrests.
According to the Chicago news, the demonstrations in Chicago numbered as the LARGEST protest in the country today, as well as the LARGEST demonstration that Chicago has EVER seen to date.
Power to the People of ChiTown = Chicago (my city)!!!!
We had a great turnout here – the LARGEST in the nation!!!
(Edited by ChiTown Lady at 10:39 pm on Mar. 21, 2003)
Yesterday – Thursday, when Bush started his shit in Iraq, since we had already decided to have massive protests here in Chicago I went downtown to be a part of that effort.
I got to Federal Plaza at a little after 11:00 a.m. At that time there were only a hand full of people there, maybe 30 – mostly high school kids and a couple of adults over 40. They had quite a large drum brigade doing – a lot of kids were carrying drums, with a few whistles and sticks to make noise too. By 12:30 (during the lunch rush) we decided to take the drum brigade etc. on a march down various downtown streets. – starting with the financial district up Lasalle street. Then down many more streets – we walked at least 20 blocks, up and down many streets to cover most of the downtown area. We got back to Federal Plaza after that first march by about 2:30 p.m.
By about 3:00 p.m., factions from a few of the colleges started showing up as well as a few more older adults (including some senior citizens), increasing the numbers in Federal Plaza to about 200 people. At that time about 100 of us took it on a march again specifically to pass by and stop at 5 of the downtown college campuses to pick up more people from those school – by of course chanting outside to encourage them to walk-out. Someone gave me a sign to carry just before we started the march - which said “5:00 p.m. Rally at Adams & Dearborn” (the location of Federal Plaza), which I displayed to anyone and everyone we passed on our way, including showing it in restaurant windows. We picked up at least 100 more people in that effort, including some people off the street and returned with our increased numbers by about 4:15 p.m.
During both marches and at Federal Plaza, people were chanting things like:
“Drop Bush – Not Bombs”
“Bush, get off it – We know this war’s for profit”
“Hey Bush, what do ya say – How many kids did you kill today?”
Over the next hour dozens and dozens more people started showing up at Federal Plaza in support of the protest effort (mostly college students), but also business people in suits, women with children, and even more senior citizens. One little old lady there was so cute. She was about 70-80 years old, no more than 4 feet tall, and was wearing a long winter coat that was covered by about 30 different anti-war buttons.
Unfortunately I had to leave at about 5:15 to go pick my 10-year old daughter up from school. This was most unfortunate since the main rally in Federal Plaza was slated to start at 5:00 p.m., so I missed that. But we decided to watch the 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. news casts just to see what was going on both here and there (in Iraq), only to find out that the eventual crowd at Federal Plaza (which was still going strong by 10:30 p.m. when the news was being broadcast here, had increased in numbers to an estimated 4,000 plus people. The newspaper this morning gave estimates that the crowd was actually 5,000 – 6,000 demonstrators. The demonstrators were reported to have taken it on a march again and had block off the intersection of Chicago and Michigan Avenues in the Magnificent Mile “Rich peoples” shopping district, and had also blocked off both the north and southbound traffic on Lake Shore Drive – in the interest of waging the “No Business as Usual” campaign by disrupting the evening rush hour. One interviewed demonstrator said just that - “No Business as Usual.” And at 7:30 p.m. one commuter on Lake Shore Drive said, at 7:30 p.m., that she had been trying unsuccessfully to get down that street since 5:00 p.m. Massive chaos for the police – evidently, as last I saw from the TV they had surrounded large numbers of demonstrators with riot police and were making hundreds of arrests.
According to the Chicago news, the demonstrations in Chicago numbered as the LARGEST protest in the country today, as well as the LARGEST demonstration that Chicago has EVER seen to date.
Power to the People of ChiTown = Chicago (my city)!!!!
We had a great turnout here – the LARGEST in the nation!!!
(Edited by ChiTown Lady at 10:39 pm on Mar. 21, 2003)