Rally for America - Chicagoland Style - 3/22/03 LIVE THREAD!

facedown | March 23, 2003 | Chicagoland Chapter

[facedown]

The Rally for America - Chicagoland Chapter Style will be starting later this morning (11:30 AM CST).

Due to the efforts of TheRightGuy, RedWing9, chicagolady and other Chicagoland FReepers, this rally has attracted the attention of news media including local TV News, WYLL radio 1160 and WLS radio 890.

The participants will be phoning in their observations/comments from the site.

[facedown]

RedWing9 Field Report:

The anti's are still there and completely surrounded by police.

The police estimated our rally at 3,000 to 5,000 people.

GREAT JOB FREEPERS!!!

[JasonC]

Thanks - the people out there were great. We had some talk radio personalities (one taped the crowd saying the Pledge to use on his program), a state senator whose father fought in Normandy in WW II, many veterans. Some patriots on Harleys circled the plaza gunning their hogs, and in those glass canyons that makes quite an impressive sound. Also got honks from passersbye, reacting to all the waving flags. Street hawkers sold extra flags to people without (now that is capitalism lol).

One guy was leading some Assyrian Christians who had left Iraq for Chicago to be able to practice their religion in peace. He said he still had relatives in Iraq who he hadn't seen for 30 years, that he hoped to be able to see again soon. Said many there in the exile community were committed to helping rebuild a democratic Iraq, thanked Bush and our troops, etc. Had a big sign, made sure the media got pictures of it. As one speaker acknowledged, referring to the smaller counter demonstration, "all the Iraqis are over here".

[HalfMyBrain]

CLTV: 11:30
Live coverage of the sputtering Mayor winding down a press conference about city security. I called CLTV--(630) 574-2588. to encourage them to cover the rally. I told them I normally don't watch CLTV but was hoping to see the pro-America rally I was hearing about on the radio.

NOON
CLTV led into the coverage with a big graphic title behind the anchor: WAR PROTEST. Mary Frances Bragiel interviewed the pro-America rally organizer onsite (a bearded man named Andy). She seemed confused--what were these people here for? Thankfully, Andy was an EXCELLENT spokesperson, including the time he ALMOST got into the "they are commies" argument but wisely refrained. Great choosing of battles, my man!

1:00 AND LATER
The rally story got bumped later and later into the broadcast.

The graphic lead-in was a little different, and cleverly accomodated local and world rallies of all sorts: WAR REACTION. The script leading to the story teased,
"But not ALL the participants are against the war..."

No more Andy interview. Now they began repeating a piece taped at least THREE HOURS EARLIER (deceptively, introduced by, "Mary Frances Bragiel IS WITH US NOW...") showing arguments between the opposing rallies and...

SHOWDOWN SHOWCASE
Also taped before the rally, some interesting interview vignettes. CLTV showcased two pro-Americans with quick, intelligent comments.

* A young lady with hair pulled back beneath a bandana, and wearing trendy/nerdy eyeglasses. First impression: college liberal...except for the colors of her bandana: red, white, and blue. Oh, and yes, her words of support for the troops, hinting at the true nature of the opposing side--"This is not about Bush. It doesn't matter what you think of President Bush."

Then there was the "other side." CLTV let the man speak for himself... l o u d l y and in circles!

* The raving man was accompanied by a continual background drumbeat. His eyes never blinked and his pointed finger never stopped jabbing while he recited his simple case. "The war was wrong last year, it was wrong last month, it was wrong last week, it was wrong last night, it is wrong now..."

At the tail of this oft-aired segment, the reporterette mentioned that the pro-America rally numbers "overpowered" the BushWhackers' numbers.

I have a feeling when the pro-America folks leave, the antics of the BushWhackers will find their way into the spotlight, pre-empting any mention of the patriot brigades that graced the Federal Plaza grounds.

[tenger]

I will be posting a few pictures from the rally if I can figure it all out. Lots and lots of flags. The appearances by the Harleys were cool as well.

[jfrog7]

Just returned from the Chicago Rally.

I have to say that I was most impressed with the quality of people that were at this really and the pride that I felt just beeing with like minded people in support of our country was over-whelming.

Thank you for organizing this rally.

[justshutupandtakeit]

I was very happy to see these Assyrian Christians and was hoping they would be there.

They congratulated me on my speech later and told me they are having a rally themselves a week from tomorrow on the north side of Chicago. I told them I would be there and to sign up on FR to publicize it. These are the folks who know the reality of this EVIL from their own personal experience.

All in all a great day and very good publicity for FR and freedom loving Americans.

Andy deserves a lot of credit for getting this together on such short notice. THREE CHEERS FOR ANDY! HIP HIP HOORAY.

[Socratic]

Congratulations to you all! I attended the Rally for America in Cleveland a few weeks ago and had a truly moving experience. Let Freedom Ring!

[Jerez2]

Just heard ABC news (national radio) cover your Rally For America on their 2pm broadcast. They even got the name right! :-) Quoted signs, "We Gave Peace a Chance, We Got 9-11" and "Thank You President Bush, Freedom isn't Free". Thought you'd like to know.

[Thebaddog]

It was way cool the way the Chicago cops were lined up and had the protester mope all fenced in to keep them quiet. I got some shots of the main freeper speaker. He was quite good.

[Prince Charles]

Work kept me away today, but I was there in spirit!

Cheers.

[steveegg]

Nice job. I caught the WBBM (See-BS) report on my way home from the Milwaukee rally (police-5 in number including 3 on horseback-estimated at well over 2500, FReeper estimated at 3500), which really gave you guys short shrift.

We didn't have many disruptors up here; they were all on the Lower East Side, while we had Downtown basically to ourselves.

[facedown]

Excellent assessment of CLTV coverage.

[facedown]

Just heard ABC news (national radio) cover your Rally For America on their 2pm broadcast.

Great! We were monitoring as much media as we could and, frankly, wouldn't have even thought to listen to them. We knew the major networks were there but expected they were looking for conflict with the anti's. We're going to watch all the local and national news shows tonight and see if we turn up anywhere.

[Mr_Magoo]

Just got home from the rally. Man am I stoked!

Redwing9 + Chicagolady did a bang-up job pulling this off. I would guess that we had about 4000 people and most likely 3900 flags! The only way to describe Rolling Thunder is "The sound of FREEDOM!" I heard that there was at least 1 from Michigan, and I talked with a group of VFW from Indiana.

[facedown]

We didn't have many disruptors up here; they were all on the Lower East Side, while we had Downtown basically to ourselves.

Our guys had plenty but the police penned them in and surrounded them with riot cops. 8^)

[steveegg]

You were on CNN; they tried to make it sound like you and the anti's were on the same side, but not on the same page.

I'll wager that the RATs up here had more cops there than we did.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Missed seeing you there. Today's circumstances dictated that I could only be there for the last hour, but I loved every minute of it. Loved the fact that we outnumbered the COMMIE Anti-American demonstrator idiots 3 to 1. WOO HOO!!!!!!! I think the cops were grateful that we were the peaceful ones. Did you all notice that the RIOT POLICE were all located on the south side of the Federal Plaza?!!!

Just heard Andy quoted on WLS-AM - the 50,000 watt blower!!!!!! WAY TO GO, ANDY!!!!!!!!

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I also got a kick out of the Harley riders!!!!!

[Dengar01]

I'm back from the rally, a police officer I spoke to estimated us at 5000 strong!!! I just saw Fox 32 News they spun the info and gave pictures when our numbers were small but I have the pictures proving how large our crowd really was. I also called WLS AM a few minutes ago and got on right away to state that our numbers were much larger than they had stated. They originally stated 200 after I got off the phone with them they stated 2500 on their news update.

I'll have pictures up soon. To ALL freepers, the freepers in the Chicagoland Chapter deserve great praise for a job well done. This couldn't have been done without Redwing9, Chicagolady, TheRightGuy, billyboy, Chi-townChief, GRRRRR, cfrels, BureaucratusMaximus, unspun, 822MPWife, Mr_Magoo, justshutupandtakeit and anyone who I may have forgot.

We did a great job today and I'm proud of the Chicagoland Chapter of Free Republic. We may not get the attention we deserve in the media but we know that we did a great job and know how large our numbers were.

[Mr_Magoo]

If you were facing the "stage", I was behind the right PA speaker, by the press table. It was one of the few places where I could sit and rest as needed.

Sorry I missed you.