Five Years

It's worth noting that not only was there an opposition to the war in Iraq from long before it began, there was a very, very large opposition to the war in Iraq from long before it began. Five years ago, some 15,000 protesters swarmed down Lake Shore Drive in a peace demonstration. I must confess that I was not there, because I was given a tip beforehand (indirectly) from a Chicago cop who was pretty damn sure some skulls were going to get cracked, and because I am a coward* I stayed out of it. But it was a pretty magnificent display of citizens making use of their right to assembly.





*I was later assured by a friend of mine who spent that night in jail that it did, in fact, get pretty rough later on, which made me feel better. Furthermore, I had already attended multiple protests before then, one of which left me with no small amount of frostbite: it takes dedication to march for any cause in January in Chicago. I came to realize later that even if I were the type of person who feels motivated to block traffic to repeatedly chant glib slogans (which I am very much not), leading street protests against this administration is like using a flyswatter to chase a bear out of your tent.