March 21, 2004
Year later, rally returns
Li Fellers and Carlos Sadovi, Tribune staff reporters, write:
Beating drums and waving signs denouncing the Bush administration and calling for peace, thousands of demonstrators marched peacefully Saturday through the streets of downtown Chicago to mark the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war.
Some were parents with children, some were elderly couples, and some were anarchists. Their nearly 2-mile trek from the Chicago Water Tower on Michigan Avenue to Federal Plaza in the Loop was one of many protests held around the world Saturday.
"Every day I wake up and hear about more and more people killed. I'm so angry, I don't know what to do other than come out here," said Lee Jaffe, 76, a retired schoolteacher who lives in Evanston.
They stepped off from Chicago and Michigan Avenues, where hundreds of demonstrators were detained and arrested last year, a day after the start of the Iraq war. This year, police said there were three arrests among the estimated 5,000 who marched.
Around the country, the roughly 250 war protests ranged from solemn to brash.
Thousands marched in San Francisco, including the Hayward, Calif., chapter of Grandmothers for Peace. Police arrested 82 people who were blocking traffic. In Manhattan, protesters filled more than a dozen police-lined blocks. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg estimated the crowd at about 30,000, but organizers later said there were more than 100,000.
In Montpelier, Vt., hundreds of silent protesters placed a pair of shoes on the Statehouse steps for each of the more than 560 U.S. soldiers killed in the war.
Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and other European countries also saw protests, while demonstrations took place earlier in Japan, Australia and India. About 500 protesters clashed with police outside the U.S. Embassy in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. No injuries were reported.
In Chicago, Stuart Iseminger, 38, held the hands of his two sons Levi, 7, and Noah, 5.
"I brought them out here to know that when we disagree with leaders, we can march and let them know how we feel," said Iseminger, a social worker from Logan Square. He said he had brought his sons to last year's march in Chicago as well.
The most significant conflict Saturday was a dispute over whether protesters would be allowed to march on Michigan Avenue, a route the police said posed too much of a safety risk as shoppers and tourists packed the Magnificent Mile on a sunny afternoon.
With more than 1,000 police officers in riot gear on duty, and with prisoner buses used as barriers to channel the march away from Michigan Avenue, the impasse ended when Rev. Jesse Jackson stepped in and told the organizers to accept the Police Department's route.
Jackson addressed the crowd at Michigan and Pearson Street, drawing huge cheers as he called for voters to elect a new president in November.
"The money to pay police is going to Iraq. The money to pay firemen is going to Iraq. The money to pay teachers is going to Iraq," Jackson said. "The administration has a narrow view of the world. It uses its power recklessly."
The march progressed along Chicago Avenue and south on Clark Street, with onlookers scattered all along the way.
Responding to organizers' criticism that the police presence was overkill, Chief of Patrol James Maurer said the department was prepared.
"You see the results," he said. "Nobody got hurt, and nothing got broken."
The demonstration drew some war supporters who called the protest unpatriotic.
Before the demonstration began, Charles Bolwin, 55, of Aurora, a Vietnam veteran, held up a sign near the Water Tower criticizing presidential candidate John Kerry's anti-war stance.
"I'm supporting [the troops] instead of demonstrating against them," said Bolwin, an employee with the Illinois Department of Transportation who was dressed in fatigues and wore a Purple Heart.
About an hour before the demonstration at Federal Plaza ended, a group of motorcyclists revved the engines of their Harley-Davidsons a block away, creating a roar that temporarily drowned out the anti-war speeches on the dais.
About three dozen people joined Ald. James Balcer (11th) at the Veterans Memorial at Soldier Field to show support for the troops. Balcer said the event was not meant to make a statement for or against military intervention in Iraq, but only to send a message of gratitude to men and women in the armed forces.
Some protesters downtown said they have family members serving in Iraq.
Linda Englund and her husband, Dean, a Vietnam veteran, carried handmade signs bearing a photo of their son in his Army uniform standing in front of a tank. Spec. John Englund has been in Iraq since February and was injured in a bomb attack on his Humvee, she said.
"We're protesting the war, not the military," said Englund, 54, of Rogers Park. Bush "is trying to kill our son and other sons for lies."
Michael Huft, 55, an attorney, and his wife, Charlotte Gyllenhaal, 55, a research scientist from Glenview, said they support the soldiers but disagree with the war.
"We're praying for the safety of the individual troops in Iraq," Gyllenhaal said.
Wheaton College student Aaron Brown, 20, said his beliefs prompted him to voice concerns about the war.
"It really bothers me [that] Bush is using Christian words" to talk about war, Brown said. "It's double-speak. I feel that as a Wheaton student, I need to represent that the kingdom of God is not based on or represented by violence."
Ellen Rebman, 19, a College of DuPage student from Wheaton, said she was protesting because her boyfriend, an Army reservist, may be sent to Iraq. She participated in a longer march that started early Saturday morning in the Pilsen neighborhood and passed through the Loop.
"Someone you love is going to someplace dangerous like that, to a place you don't support," Rebman said. "My boyfriend is probably leaving. My boyfriend might never come back."