After the Laundry: Off to Plan a March in March

We are now approaching the 6th anniversary of the Iraq War/occupation for oil, March 21st. So it is time for planning. I was surprised that Pre-planning had already produced a route, a permit application-city of Chicago and a host community. This time the Latina/Latino community near SW side of Chicago. It is called Pilsen and all the Latin organizations in Chicago are headquartered there. (If you recall, our last march was in the summer and was in the Pakistan/Indian community at Devon on the North side; again because of the immigration issue.)

About 60 of us attended this first all important meeting. This year it is very interesting because the type of jobs the majority of Latin persons have do not lend themselves for "after work" marches. So the planners picked Saturday March 14. (I believe two years ago we marched on Tuesday because we didn't want to compete.) Now if you know anything about March 14 in Chicago it is this "St Patrick Rules!" as this is the weekend before St. Pat's and Chicago is known for 2 parades: one downtown with the river being dyed green-very top secret as to how it is done but environmentally friendly we are assured. The other is on the Southside and now the largest and the rowdiest, I think about 100,000 folks show up to be Irish for the day. College students come from all over the Midwest to participate "in the traditional drinking of green beer."

We need a "banner phrase" The focus of the march is two fold; 1. The anniversary of the war/occupation and 2. Immigration rights as this is a major emphasis for our host community. Another important focus is the ANSWER coalition's call to march in DC on March 21. In Chicago we need to call all who can to get to DC to make sure that President Obama and the Democratically controlled get the message: We demand peace and justice both at home and abroad.

So we plan to meet next weekend to continue to "create the experience" for Chicago. How do we remember 1 million Iraqis killed, 4+million displaced our own soldiers killed and maimed, those who are committing suicide at the rate of 100 a week? How do we help educate that our economic crisis is connected to this war and the same officials who lied about the war had first hand experience of corruption which led to the financial woes which effect all human services and needs.
It was a very lively 3 hour meeting well run with consensus for decision making. We broke down into 4 working groups:

1. Media and outreach-flyers, facebook, text messaging, etc.
   
2. Program-speakers and entertainers about 1 hour at each end of the march
   
3. Logistics-permits, security, insurance, stages, etc.
4. Liaison with ANSWER for the bus trip to DC on the 21st

I choose to work on #4 as we have not had that task force before but as I told the only other person to volunteer, who has never done bus work before, "We need the book Bus Trip Coordination for Dummies" Supposedly ANSWER has done the bus trip coordination before-to me it sounds hellish fraught with all kinds of problems. So it will be off to uncharted volunteer territory for me.

One of the suggestions which resonated with me was: Create a symbol that can be taken to DC for the 3/21 march. The symbol offered was baby dolls wrapped in red blankets to image loss of life of children in Palestine, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, children being lost in the SW desert, shot in the neighborhoods of Chicago. The list could go on.

Now I am exhausted after my aerobic laundry this morning, a three hour meeting in the afternoon, my own laundry when I got home at 7PM. It is time for me to say, "Blessings and Good Night"