Message from my sons: Thanks for your support. HOOAH/OORAH
RedWing, you're a lot faster than I am but here's my two bits with not too many typos, I hope:
I arrived at Federal Plaza just before noon to be met by RedWing9, justshutupandtakeit, jamesnwu, Bismarck, others whose handles I can’t remember (sorry) and at least a dozen of our friends from ProtestWarrior.com ably led by Captain Mike. They already had their satirical tall signs that you see at their website
http://www.protestwarrior.com/ ready to go for today’s action, code name Operation Wolverines. And the weather, by the way, was beautiful. If this is global warming, roll it out!
After an exchange of greetings and a brief strategy session, we staked out a spot beneath the flag in Federal Plaza and awaited the arrival of our left-wing adversaries. To kill some time, RedWing and myself stood at street corner of Dearborn and Adams displaying our signs to passing motorists and bewildered shoppers.
RedWing’s signs included “Not in Saddam’s Name”, “NION, moveon, A.N.S.W.E.R. = Communism”, “Free Iraq”, “Freedom is not Free – Support our Troops” and mine read “Welcome, al Quida Groupies” and “U.N. : Peace or Piece of the Action.” We had a long debate with a slightly wacked guy on a bicycle who said he was a Nam vet with his friend, who apparently was an old DP (if I may be so politically incorrect) who had a heavy accent and was very difficult to understand although he was able to use foul language quite aptly. The vet’s complaint was that he had to go overseas and President Bush didn’t. In fact, that was basically all he said for about 15 minutes regardless of any argument presented to him.
Returning to flagpole, we had to keep a closely guarded perimeter around the signs as the lefties had an idea of what we were up to. A couple of them even tried to pick them up but were rebuffed when we said, “Hey! We don’t go grabbing your stuff.”
Then, near-disaster struck. A police office in full riot gear came over and asked to see the signs. After looking at them, she asked us to move to the back of the plaza saying that International A.N.S.W.E.R. had the permit to Federal Plaza and it was an anti-war rally so we couldn’t display any signs opposing them. But Captain Mike then talked to another officer and arrived at a compromise: the ProtestWarrior satirical signs could stay but our FreeRepublic anti-anti-war signs would have to go. So the ProtestWarrior folks stayed at the flagpole while RedWing and myself headed over to Clark and Adams to meet and greet the anti-war (read as anti-America) crowd as the march turned the corner. At this point, we had also lost track of justshutupandtakeit’s location and we hope he will fill us in later.
At Clark and Adams where there was very police presence, we met a variety of people. We were joined by a very pleasant young lady named Christine, I believe, whose husband is one of Chicago’s finest but wasn’t working the street and we gave her a sign and she joined us for the duration. A few people would stop by and offer moral support and we were very entertained by a guy across the street with a Saddam mask and an array of hilarious signs. Of course, we also threatened by the peacenik thugs that always seem to be integral to these events, one jackass saying that we’d be running when the marchers came down the street. When RedWing answered that we’ve already encountered these guys last year at their Rogers Park march, the peacenik thug shouted, “This ain’t Rogers Park.” To which RedWing replied, “So what are you going to do, beat me up?” and the jackass seemed to calm down after that. We also encountered a few other young peacepunks but their threats were pretty incoherent.
We also met reporters Chinta Strausberg of the Chicago Defender, Sharon Wright of WMAQ NBC-5,and Li Fellers of the Chicago Tribune all of whom we talked to, at least as we could in the commotion. Ms. Strausberg telegraphed her left-wing bias so much that RedWing had to cut her short (I was happy to meet her as I’ve heard her on the radio quite a few times and she provides a good example of how the other half thinks) but Ms. Wright and Fellers were very respectful and polite even while asking some pretty tough questions.
While all this was going on, the marchers came down Clark led by mounted police (one guy was having a terrible problem with his horse) and police in riot gear on foot. It was kind of like opening day at the ballpark. Interestingly, I’ve seen on TV where the marchers were led by the Rev. Jesse Jagoff but I didn’t notice him at all. Maybe he stopped at Ronnie’s for a discount steak.
The situation then settled in to a pretty typical freep with us trading “witticisms” with the rabid snarling peace-lovers who, as always, are quite shocked by even token opposition. This year, they did seem a bit less boisterous almost as if they are as sick of themselves as we are of them. There also seemed to be more old Peter Paul and Mary aging hippie-types along with a bunch of clueless teens who acted as if it were Spring Break in Daytona. And, of course, the usual black-masked anarchists, Muslim wannebees, conspiracy buffs (“The Bush Mafia Killed Paul Wellstone”), and Dennis Kucinich fans were all there. This lasted for about a half-hour and then RedWing, Christine, and myself worked our way through the police line and headed back to Federal Plaza.
We were only able to enter at the back of the plaza but saw the giant blue signs up front signaling that our friends from ProtestWarrior had successfully pulled off Operation Wolverine. We also continued engaging the lefties in debate with one somewhat overbaked woman informing me that the proper Arabic spelling for my sign is “al Queda” and other such nonsense. We weren’t able to hear much of the speeches where we were at although I’m sure we didn’t miss anything and finally met back up with the ProtestWarrior team who reported a casualty of one big sign lost but and otherwise smooth operation.
The final action of the day occurred when the Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club arrived at the corner of Dearborn and Jackson and really revved them up. We scrambled over to show our support while the peaceniks couldn’t quite figure out whose side they were on but, when they did, the black-masked guys entered the intersection to try to disrupt things bringing the police in. They broke things up quickly and that pretty much ended the action as we exchanged congrats and goodbyes and headed for home.
All in all, a very good day although I was extremely disappointed that we didn’t have time to soak up some suds at The Berghoff. I hope and expect that we can accomplish this sometime soon.
Good work, guys and gals! Chicago.... my old hometown.
One more point: I still get the impression that, without the police presence these lefty clowns wouldn't be happy until downtown was completely trashed. My opinion, anyway.
Oh, how I wish I could have joined you, but my car is still in the shop (replacing the entire engine) . . .
WAY TO GO GUYS! I'm really, really sorry I didn't make it....trying to clean up all the downed trees in my yard from the wind in the windy city...