Braving the Cold, Hundreds Rally for Peace in Oak Park by Richard BreyerOak Park Coalition for Truth and Justice
Richard Breyer gives an account of the December 8 march and rally for peace in Downtown Oak Park. The rally, organized by OPCTJ, was part of a coordinated series of events throughout Chicago area from December 1 through December 15.
At the park entrance at Oak Park Avenue and Lake Street, Joe Kransdorf was sitting behind a card table gathering the last signatures for an ad to be placed in the Wednesday Journal. People were still streaming in. Others were milling around. No parking was available nearby, so I parked on Kenilworth two blocks away. As I locked up my car another marcher pulled into the spot behind me. Her name was Jackie. I asked her how she came to be here today. She said she had seen Kevin on Channel 11, so she got in touch, wound up at the peace potluck last Sunday, heard Congressman Davis telling everyone to get involved and here she is. "Why're you for peace?" I wondered. She held her hands out beside her like she was holding an expanding orb full of obvious reasons. Coming to grips with the impossibility of listing them all she said simply---"There's just no reason for war."
By 2:15 Kevin had mounted the overgrown soap box that was plastered with the name of State Senator Don Harmon.. He welcomed everyone. . He told us that CAWI (Chicagoans Against the War in Iraq) had called for local demonstrations as a run up to the big event, the December 15th candlelight vigil on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. He introduced Amy, Gayle and Tom. They sang "A Song of Peace" by Lloyd Stone and Jon Sibelius, some in the crowd joined in. Then Professor Bill Edelman spoke. He made three points.
2) War will wreck our economy. He cited the cost of a war, $200 Billion, and what that money could do to improve living conditions. He talked about the current war against Unions. He said "Hitler was supported by the gun maker Krupp...the first thing he did was to destroy the labor movement...." He quoted Hubert Humphrey, "No nation ever went bankrupt building. You go bankrupt in war. No Nation ever lost its life trying to save life. You lose your life when you take life." 3) War will destroy our freedoms at home. He quoted Karl Rove who likened President Bush's reception at the 2001 World Series game like "being at a Nazi rally." He revisited his own persecution at the hands of the notorious Nixon regime when he spoke out against the Viet Nam war. He truncated his speech because of the cold. I spoke with Nancy while the musicians prepared for their next number, "Down by the Riverside." She recalled her College experiences during the Viet Nam era. You weren't supposed to wear long earrings or a pony tail because they might grab you by them. Someone always got up at the beginning of the demonstration and gave a bail bondsman's phone number. It changed from rally to rally. While the musicians sang, an ambulance and fire truck honked and shrieked their way through the intersection of Lake and Oak Park. A few moments later when the fire truck passed the "Honk for Peace" sign, the fire truck driver gave an extra blast. I borrowed a sign that said "Give Peace a Chance" from one of my fellow demonstrators and corralled our march photographer. I asked him to take a picture of my daughter, Bonnie Breyer, holding the sign. It seemed like a positive visual message for peace to be included in our ad. The ad signatures and revenues were now over the top. We had all the names needed to fill the page and plenty of money to pay for an Ad in the Wednesday Journal.
Finally, Kathy Reeves, minister of the Euclid United Methodist Church gave a quick talk. She related what the great champion of non-violence, Dr. Martin Luther King, said when his brother became irritated at oncoming cars continually flashing their brights at him. "The next one that does that me, I'm going jam my brights right into his eyeballs," said the brother. "Someone has to be the one to turn down his brights first," said Martin. "Why not you?" (In this regard, I think, this crowd was mostly turning their brights down. The rhetoric on the signs was forthright but not overly challenging, except for the guy who was wearing the "Bush is an Idiot" sign.) Then she had us up and chanting "Give Peace a Chance" and "Study War No More" call and response style. Finally, the musicians sang us out of the park and onto the March with "We Believe in Peace"--- "Peace, salaam, shalom, We believe in Peace." At the head of our procession, brandishing on high the white dove---the Peace Pigeon--- Valery Iglar-Mobley led us confidently on. After an ill-fated effort to keep the marchers singing "We believe in Peace", I settled into line next to Caroline. Caroline is a local elected volunteer board member. She told me that several other elected officials were in the crowd, unofficially. She came because she believes that people should show up and express themselves. By now the crowd, not counting Police, had swelled to 200-300 people and was creating a few traffic headaches, but most of the motorists I saw seemed to be with us. Many were honking, or a few were honking very prolifically. In any case, a lot of honking for peace was going on. Amy and Gayle appeared, trying to rouse the troops into song: "(Let me tell you now) After a couple of choruses the music died. The crowd got a little spread out and the marshals stopped at Lake and Harlem to let everybody catch up. Then we crossed Lake and started walking back down its shady side. A teenager was walking kind of furtively with a hand scrawled sign saying "War is Groovy". People pretended not to notice. No-one engaged him. Later, down the street in front of Cavalry Church I found the sign face down in the grass. I spoke to someone from Euclid Methodist. She said she had to go an Advent brunch pretty soon, but for now she was here supporting Blair Barbour and that was her position on the war. I also ran into Jean. She said that 50 people from Unity Temple had offered their names in support of our Ad in the Wednesday Journal. When the column arrived at Oak Park Avenue, everyone veered across the street and back into Scoville Park. Originally we were also supposed to march down Oak Park to St. Edmonds and back, but we amputated that leg because of frostbite. When most of the marchers had returned Kevin thanked us all and the musicians sang: How many times must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand? 
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December 8, 2002, Scoville Park, Oak Park, Illinois - We marched for Peace on an icy clear Sunday, beneath a bright afternoon sun. The low ground of Scoville Park where we first gathered for speeches was covered with crisp snow. By 2:00, the specified start time, fewer than 150 souls had showed up. Our emcee and key grip, Kevin McDermott, had already set up the super-sized soap box from which the spoken and sung sections of the march were supposed to be presented, and most folks had gathered around it.
When I and my family arrived back at the Park, the crowd had swelled a bit more. I buttonholed Green Party campaign manager Bruce Samuels. He said, (I'm paraphrasing) "Marches are good. Marches are O.K., but if each of these people went and knocked on ten doors today, we'd be talking about getting our message to 2500 people directly and effectively. If all these people ran for office, we'd have a really loud convincing political voice for peace and progressive issues."
1) War will discredit America in the World's eyes. He cited the German thirst for Arabian oil as a prime motive for WWI. He cited Japanese thirst for Indonesian oil as a major motive for starting WWII. He noted the current administration's thirst for Arabian oil.
The crowd refused to study war no more for a few more choruses and then Amy got up and told a story about a Hindu deity who appeared among the people and made them take a look at how their fears to lead them into futile and destructive conflict. By this time my children were huddling pathetically against the cold, and I released them to go home with their mom.