I went to a Greenpeace rally a few weeks ago. They called it “Chicago Climate Action”.  I was late, as I seem to be for these things lately, but I made it just in time for the march. So like a good little photographer I jogged into the mob and started fluttering. The pictures look about like I felt that day. I’m not too happy with them.

I was somewhere between a marcher and a spectator. I was in it physically, walking in the center of the blob, but emotionally I was completely detached. When I looked around I thought the majority of these people felt the same. Maybe it was me projecting but it seemed like these kids had just enough energy to get there but not much else. I was late though so I should shut up on that….

What I WAS there for in it’s entirety was the “sit-in” occurring on the street in front of the power plant. It went down like a boring, syndicated, mid-day program. Boring as in little to no action or movement, Syndicated as in an old method of 30 years past, and Mid-Day because it was the afternoon. I could have been watching Golden Girls.

“What do we want? green energy! when do want it? now! what’re we gonna stop? global warming! when’re we gonna stop it? …now!”

There was a group of about 8 people sitting in the street with a sign resting at their feet. The cops had blocked off the street previous for the (sanctioned) march but it was now past 4pm and the cops had to wait. The Chicago police department gave them a warning. They nodded along. At the same time this band is playing pirate/marching music on the sidewalk and a ton of video cameras are swarming the scene. It was a B-story media dance.

The police were tired of waiting around and the rally folks were running out of cheers so they did what everybody was waiting for and arrested them. The band played them off as they exited stage riot van.

“aint no power like the solar power, cuz the global power won’t stop!”

The cameras left and nobody wept. Everyone went home and slept. There wasn’t anything bad-ass about it. It wasn’t like the movies. Or the 60′s. There wasn’t anything productive communicated. There was no new statement made. It was just a boring drawn out ritual further diluting the significance of events like these.

I went to the “Tea Party” in St. Charles a few weeks ago. There was no tea and no sign of a party. There were quite a few people listening to speeches though. It was a strange gathering — something like a toe dip into a 60′s protest or a tired sunday night revival. An old lady quivered  some patriotic hymns through cracked speakers. A crazy haired lady did some fist pumps to pump the pep. A doctor spoke. He got lots of cheers with cheesy, condescending remark about Obama’s  health plan.  Church lady came back with some more B-sides.  Then crazy lady was back with a little “support our troops” diddy.  It mostly winded down into rhetoric about how socialist our country has gotten/becoming and how little we know about our constitution let alone abide by it. Throughout this event speakers had some how equated “support our troops” with the health care reform debacle.  I despise this tactic. This statement has become meaningless.

I got there toward the end of it all so I didn’t get the full experience.  I did catch this guy’s speech. It might have been one of his first public speeches. He had some good points but it was clear he was nervous. I think I made it worse taking pictures of him. He seemed to stuttered in rhythm with the flutter of my camera shutter. I don’t blame him, I’d be scared of cameras pointed at me too.

It’s  good to see people actually gathering together in a place that wasn’t a bar or a mall. People came to listen and in some way participate. This sure beat the hell out of reading it on a blog (like your doing now :0) or watching the TV chew it out for us. This was pulp Missouri.

So if you hear about any of these happenings I recommend checking one out. At best you learn/feel something at worst you get to watch a circus.

And of course there’s always a lurker….

Is he a performance artist? Is he a preacher? Is he a preacher performing as a televangelist? I just can’t tell anymore.

Joke:

What did the phalanx of approaching anarchists say to the riot control barricade?

Punchline:

I really don’t know much about the issues that have these people marching down the street or why the authorities felt they needed to suppress them.

What  interested me the most about this situation is how many cameras are on the scene. There’s about as many people in cameras as there are protesters. Nothing destroys the revolutionary moment for me more than a heard of  photographers creeping around fluttering their shutters. It’s like protesting has become a sporting event.

And what ever moral high ground those anarchists thought they had is officially in that dumpster rolling down to the police.

Whatever bloc that was – - you just had a COMMUNICATION FAIL.

Media Tips for the anarchists:

• Drop the black. It’s scary.
• Don’t look like bandits.
• Get a logo that doesn’t remind one of the Soviet Union
• Handouts!
• Hand out candies for the kids with little coloring books attached that outline your views.
• Hand out magazines to the college kids, something they can carry above their books to coffee shops.
• To the Soccer Moms: Tricky…I’m thinking flowers tied to pamphlets that frame your ideology around the family… throw in some scrapbook stickers.  Get creative.
• Speak clearly and concise. Be the opposite of this.
• Don’t travel in a pack, canvas. That way you can avoid a mob mentality, disassociate from any of the crazy members, AND you might actually get an idea across. Learn from Greenpeace.
• Make a handbook.  Get organized.

In my down time, which I have a lot of these days, you can find me alone in a room trying to think up ways to make a living for myself. When I’m not thinking about ways to pay myself I look for sturdy, solid places nearby to beat my head against.

This might sound like a tough job but somebody’s gotta do it. In fact a lot of people are these days: Unemployment has hit 10%. That means that one person in every 10 people are now jobless. Read the rest of this entry →

For the conservative folks it was the damned parading on wheels … it was like that moment in the ten commandments where Charlton Heston comes down off the mountain and the Jews are all worshiping idols and fornicating all over the place .

There was one of those folks right there at the train stop. He held a bible aloft and denounced a few things here and there, the usual method for his type. He shouted at the queers and of course they all fed him exactly what his mental picture of a homosexual was. This only leaves him more resolute in his quest.  I wish they’d all give it up. It’s a dead end for both sides. Read the rest of this entry →