October 27 Mobilization Chicago
By Nick Egnatz, Munster, IN
A group of about 30 peace activists boarded the South Shore 'peace
train' in East Chicago, Indiana bound for the October 27 Mobilization
in Chicago. Hailing from Munster, Highland, Merrillville,
Schererville, Hammond and representing NW Indiana VFP, Code Pink,
Purdue Campus Greens and the NWICAIW we joined a jovial crowded train
bound for the glory of stopping an illegal, immoral present war and
the next one around the corner in Iran. We joined activists from
Gary, Chesterton, Ogden Dunes, Dune Acres, Valparaiso, Michigan City,
LaPorte, South Bend, Mishawaka and Goshen.
After arriving at Millennium Station in Chicago, we rode the L
(elevated train), the bus and marched to Union Park west of the
Chicago Loop for the rally and joined others from Bloomington, Terre
Haute, Indianapolis and West Lafayette, Indiana, in addition to the
Illinois contingent and others we personally met from Minnesota,
Michigan and Ohio.
The reported crowd size of 30,000 seemed much too high and most
newspaper accounts said 5,000 or 10,000. The 10,000 figure or a
little higher was probably the most accurate. While all of us would
like the attendance to be huge at these events, what really matters
and is most important is what each individual does to stop our
government's illegal wars and military occupations. The fact remains
that a large number of citizens in Chicago joined like minded people
at locations across the country providing 'witness' to our
government's criminal actions.
Obviously President Bush, Vice President Cheney and top administration
officials instigated the war and presented it to the Congress and the
American People with a propaganda campaign of lies and
misrepresentations. The so called opposition party has done little
opposing and deserves its share of the blame. Since the Democrats
control the House, they could simply refuse to propose any funding
bill which did not have a specific withdrawal timetable. They could
support impeachment and restore accountability and the rule of law to
our once great country. Instead they have chosen to play politics and
allow the President to continue the occupation and probably also go to
war with Iran, while they wring their hands and say what a poor job he
is doing.
As citizens, all we are left with is to say with our loudest voice,
this is wrong, criminal and we will not be a part of it. If others
choose not to join us in pursuing a return to a lawful government, it
is not our fault. We can only control our own actions.
We marched the almost 2 miles to Federal Plaza downtown flanked and
followed by police the entire way. With property tax increases in
Chicago being the news of the day, it would seem that maybe somebody
might say something about deploying hundreds of police on overtime pay
to watch or peaceful demonstrations.
In between the political speeches, Derek Giffin, of Schererville, IN
and the Indiana State Coordinator for IVAW, spoke. We joined other
vets from VFP, VVAW and IVAW in standing with Derek as he spoke. He
told us of receiving information preparing him to deploy to Iraq only
about 6 weeks after 9/11 and almost a year and a half before we
actually invaded. He was sent to Kuwait and sat at the border waiting
for the invasion that the Administration was trying to justify. He
was told by his information officer that Iraq did not posses NBC
(nuclear, biological or chemical weapons). This in 2001 and long our
government reversed course and made the fraudulent WMD claims to the
American people. Although, our government didn't send him to Iraq
from Kuwait on his first Mideast tour, they managed to send him to
Iraq on his next deployment.
I am sorry but I was unable to hear much of the other speeches with
the large crowd. Many of us then caught the return 'peace train' at
6PM.
Dorothy Niblick reported the Highland, IN rally went well for those
unable to make the trip to Chicago. We have rallied at the Highway of
the Flags Veterans Memorial in Highland every Saturday for more than 2
years. Our 'winter soldiers' will be there standing vigil against a
criminal government every Saturday, this winter too.