Chicagoland Chapter - After Action Report, 2/15 Anti-anti-war Protest

Personal Experience | 2/15/2003 | RedWing9

[RedWing9]

The Chicagoland Chapter had a successful Anti-antiwar protest in the Lincolnwood area of North Chicago. Attendees were Chicagolady, GRRRRR, Chi-Town Chief, BillyBoy, RedWing9, justshutupandtakeit and son.

BillyBoy, Chicagolady and myself arrived at the corner of Western and Devon around 12:15. GRRRRR and Chi-Town Chief had already laid claim to the corner flying the American Flag and egging-on the 'Saddam Fan Club' of 'Useful Idiots.' justhshutupandtakeit and his son came soon after that, yelling comments from across the street like 'We love Saddam'.

We were located about 4 blocks west of the protest gathering but right along their planned march. Their rally was to start at noon, but there were plenty of stragglers coming down Devon until the march began. That only allowed us to stir them up with chants like:

• We want more inspectors, 400,000 of them
• We love Saddam {using sarcasm}
• Give war a chance
• Bomb Bomb Bomb Iraq...

I'll leave it up to the others to add their own reminisces. I do remember calling out to the bandana-covered-face radicals to show their face. They tried to yell something which was undiscernable, so I again asked them to drop the bandana so we could understand them. They continued on their way, flustered by their inability to make a point, I think.

The marchers began their journey west at around 1:15p and they past by us, all ~4000-5000 of them. I stood on a bus bench the entire time with my 400,000 inspectors sign, chanting, pointing out their faltering logic, and just generally laughing at them.

Several of them tried to corner me into the 'you've never served in the military' argument, it was most assuredly easy to ignore them.

We kept reminding them that A.N.S.W.E.R. and N.I.O.N. were fronted by communist organizations. At at the end we had an old man, veteran of Korea, establish himself as a member of A.N.S.W.E.R. We had a discussion with him that was more laden with the typical 'you didn't serve, you can't talk' rhetoric, along with other things that justshutupandtakeit and GRRRRR will have to comment on. I would like to point out that as he was walking away and said "A small town in Texas is missing their town joker" I said, "Oh, I didn't know you were from Texas"... lol

[Chi-townChief]

Not only that Mr. Jervis published a fairly accurate description of some of the "anti-war" clowns out there:

"Around Pease were men wearing George W. Bush masks, pink-clad protest dancers, jugglers, tuba-playing skeletons, black-masked anarchists, socialists, students, nuns and city officials, some chanting "Hey-hey, ho-ho, Bush's war has got to go!"'

I also read that Democratik Peoples' Republik of Chicago alderman Joe Moore made an embarrassing spectacle of himself - I'm kind of sorry we weren't close enough to hear him.

[JustPiper]

To the bravest Freepers I know. I once lived not far from that corner and for Freepers who don't know the area, it is, besides the southside , the biggest muslim community in the city area! I mean there are four corners with the business names all muslim. Just north of there the area has the most synagoges. Matter of fact when a few people were shot back when the sniper was active, were in that area.

Bump to ChiTown Freepers, an extra ping for being in this city's war zone!!!

[JustPiper]

A word of thanks to all you who have served in the military Thank you! I know my Freedom of speech exists because much blood was shed. God Bless you all!

Amen! And that should be a poster for all future freeps:

Do you know you get to protest because the military fought for that right for you?!?

[JustPiper]

See the bravery, freepers standing in front on Gandhi electronics, welcome to the hateful world of Chicago libs, I hate this demo city. The cops are the toughest in that district and it had to kill them having duty, being most are vets!

[Dengar01]

Read about you in the Tribune today. Good work guys, sorry I couldn't make it I had work yesterday.

[Barnacle]

Most excellent!

[Chi-townChief]

Thanks - I just hope that someone more articulate than myself can get the word out to the press, radio and TV, and the fair-minded people of this city.

[BillyBoy]

Hey, the pics are showing up now. Alright!

[RedWing9]

Hey GRRRRR, take a close look at the picture of that maggot who thinks Wellstone was killed by the "Bush Mafia". Isn't that guy Wellstone!?!?!? LOL

[Notforprophet]

Good Job Chicagoland Freepers. Wish I coulda been there.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Great job, Chicago-land FReepers! I was there in spirit with you today, but was with my kids at their commitments over the weekend (hence my absence).

Unless GRRRRR got one, I was too busy being interviewed by the Chicago Tribune.

Woo hoo!!!!! Maybe they'll actually use something from this interview?!! Good going! (Let us know if you see anything in print attributed to you.)

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Looking to see if there's an on-line link right now....... Great to hear there was at least a mention which acknowledged the other point of view (thanks to all the Chi-town FReepers)!

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Tribune coverage found here.

[Chi-townChief]

'Around her, people held banners reading, "War is Not an Option," "Make Jobs Not War" and "Forget Iraq, Nuke France."'

I didn't see that sign nor can I figure out what they mean by it.

[justshutupandtakeit]

You were quoted by name in the Sunday SW Trib.

[justshutupandtakeit]

He is a freeper, Mark Antony, but rarely posts. He is finishing up school and working a lot.

I had heard there were going to be 10000 marchers so I thought we might need reinforcements. But since there were only 3000 Useful Idiots to 8 Freepers we had them outnumbered after all.

[Chi-townChief]

I tried to call in to Don and Roma on WLS this a.m. to describe Saturday's events but couldn't get through. Have you or anyone else had success in presenting our side to the media?

[RedWing9]

"Forget Iraq, Nuke France."

That would be the Iraqi or Palistinian contingent...

[cfrels]

Great pics and a great job, guys! You da best!

[GRRRRR]

Man, I can't believe NOBODY saw the PUN I put by the Wellstone "PLANE NUTS"...guy...you Freepers are SLIPPING!!


GRRRRRRollin...