Mar 8

Mar 8 Women Hit the Streets

Chicago, Demonstrations, Donald J. Trump, Performance, Protest, Public Declarations

“Look what’s happening out in the streets
Got a revolution, got to revolution
Hey, I’m dancing down the street
Got a revolution, got to revolution
Ain’t it amazing all the people I meet
Got a revolution, got to revolution”

— Jefferson Airplane, Volunteers (1969)

“You can fool some people sometimes
But you can’t fool all the people all the time
So now we see the light
(What you gonna do?)
We going to stand up for our right
(Yeah, yeah, yeah)

So you’d better...

Get up, stand up (In the morning, get it up)
Stand up for your right (In the night)”

— Bob Marley and the Wailers, Get Up, Stand Up (1973)

Like yesterday’s Stand for Science rally, today’s International Women’s Day rally in Daley Plaza was fairly lame. It was far better attended, with just under 1,500 participants, according to one well-placed source. The weather had changed dramatically, with the sun now out and the temperatures soaring into the low 40s. The speakers, however, covered no new ground. No celebrities, nor musicians took part.

While signs addressing women’s issues were prevalent, Ukrainian signage and flags were also visible, reminding the crowd that Trump has not only sold women out, but also the Ukrainians. I was pleased to see Zoryana Smozhanyk, one of the dominant forces driving the Chicago Ukrainian Community response to the war, take the podium, both to speak about Trump’s alignment with Putin and to sing the Ukrainian National Anthem. She acknowledged that she was no singer, but then noted that the words and spirit were what mattered. She turned in a more than respectable performance.

I also ran into one of the women who lead the frequent Russian émigré protests denouncing Putin. I jokingly prodded her, “What, no sign in Russian today?” She responded with a smile, signaling ‘Nope,” just here as an American citizen speaking out on behalf of women from around the world. Unlike so many who complain about President Donald J. Trump and Elon Musk, this woman doesn’t take her First Amendment rights for granted. Why would she? When she was leading demonstrations in Russia, Putin’s security forces visited her home several times, telling her that if she continued, imprisonment would follow. The country should welcome more immigrants like her.

Which brings me to my friend Tom, along with countless others who have asked me what they can do. Earlier this week, Tom reached out, including me in a group email asking specifics about addressing the existential threat posed by Trump and Musk. Responding, I noted two demonstrations that had been scheduled for today—the International Women’s Day rally and a demonstration against DOGE outside the Rush Street Tesla dealership.

He expressed interest in attending. Two days later, the group received a follow-up email reporting that Tom had made scripted calls to Republicans legislators, for him a satisfying experience.

A day later, I sent Tom an email informing him about schedule changes. Responding, he indicated that he was no longer able to attend either rally. He had a date with his grandson, which is certainly a legitimate excuse.

Based on what I now view as seminal experiences in my early life, I offer Tom and everyone else copied on Tom’s email a suggestion. Next time, give your grandson a lifelong lesson in civic engagement. The night before a scheduled rally, get some corrugated cardboard and paint—make some topically relevant signs. Help your grandson come up with a clever slogan for his sign—the cover image for this recent post offers an excellent example, misspelling and scrawl. The next day, attend the rally or march with your grandson, followed by a debriefing during dinner at a favorite restaurant. And If I know about your plans, I will capture some images of you and your grandson marching in the streets so that he has a memento to remember you by once you’re six-feet under.

I remember my first demonstration. It was at architect Eero Saarinen’s Milwaukee War Memorial the day that Walter Cronkite announced that the U.S. had engaged in an aerial bombing campaign in Cambodia. My mother took me, which was a bit out of character, because she was anything but civically engaged. Most likely, she voted for Richard Nixon in 1968, if she even voted.

Our experience that night long ago was a peaceful one. Given the passage of time—I may be conflating events—I also remember events at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that were less than peaceful. One of my fellow high school classmates may have been involved.

In addition to my first protest, I also have vivid memories of spending an afternoon in Eugene McCarthy’s Milwaukee campaign headquarters while in 7th grade; attending a George Wallace rally—as an interested observer—in 1972 with my friend Bruce; and watching one of the Washington, D.C. anti-war demonstrations on TV with family members following my cousin’s bat mitzvah. Of course, I can’t forget the 1968 Democratic Convention. All created a lifelong interest in politics and civics.

My youthful experiences probably explain my continuing fascination with rallies and marches, which are the tectonic plates underlying our civic discourse. Most of the time, they don’t register on the ‘Richter scale.’ Nevertheless, those who pay attention develop a sense of what the body politic is thinking about, many at a subconscious level.

As with the plates underlying the earth’s surface, every once and while, there is a sudden upward thrust as two plates press against each other, releasing vast amounts of energy. The result being noteworthy changes in the earth’s surface, which are manifested by building and bridge collapses, people being struck by falling objects, and cars swallowed whole by newly opened crevices.

Metaphorically, demonstrations bear a striking resemblance to tectonic plates. Only when the people who do not regularly take part in demonstrations have a Howard Beale moment—”I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore"—will politicians respond to the crevices in the social fabric. While I am somewhat at odds with Beale’s entire speech, to my mind, that means hundreds of thousands or even millions of people need to take to the streets on a Saturday or Sunday.

For example, when 100,000 people demonstrated in Washington, D.C. on May 9, 1970 following the Kent State massacre and Richard Nixon’s incursion into Cambodia, the president made a 4:00 AM visit to the Lincoln Memorial, where he met with the demonstrators, telling them,

I hope that [your] hatred of the war, which I could well understand, would not turn into a bitter hatred of our whole system, our country and everything that it stood for. I said that I know probably most of you think I'm an SOB. But I want you to know that I understand just how you feel.

While some reports paint Nixon as delusional—some going as far as to suggest he was under the influence of LSD, or had been dosed—and the visit did not result in the immediate cessation of hostilities in the Far East, it marked the beginning of the end.

Fifteen hundred people today was woefully inadequate in a city with a population numbering three million. It was not covered in the local newspapers.

Trump and Musk (and more importantly, Republican legislators) didn’t hear the demonstrators. No crevices opened.

Don’t just complain. Take to the Streets

[Click on an Image to Enlarge It. The Images Are Not Necessarily in Exact Chronological Order]