[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Fw: CDUI Rolling Thunder/Chicago

[Peter Miller]

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>From: "david johnson" <unionyes at ameritech.net>
>Subject: Fw: CDUI Rolling Thunder/Chicago
>Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 06:58:09 -0500
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>Date: Sunday, June 16, 2002 7:56 PM
>Subject: CDUI Rolling Thunder/Chicago
>
>
>Political activists in partying mood
>
>
>By Liam Ford
>Tribune staff reporter
>
>June 16, 2002
>
>The West Side's Union Park has hosted many labor rallies and progressive 
>political gatherings in its almost 150 years.
>
>But the Rolling Thunder Down-Home Democracy Tour, a sort of Lollapalooza 
>of political activism, probably was the first to include both a 
>Dunk-the-Lobbyist carnival game and workshops on running political campaigns.
>
>Rolling Thunder, which is making stops throughout the country this year, 
>brings together local activists, musicians, organic farmers and just plain 
>folks to show people they can have fun fighting for their causes. Several 
>thousand people gathered at the park Saturday to soak in the sun, eat soy 
>hot dogs and listen to speakers including U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. 
>(D-Ill.), Chicago writer Studs Terkel and Organic Valley Family Farms head 
>George Siemon.
>
>The tour is the brainchild of Jim Hightower, a folksy Texas writer and 
>commentator who has served two terms as that state's agriculture 
>commissioner. Hightower says he wants to inspire activism without boring 
>political neophytes.
>
>"The idea for the tour comes from the realization, as I travel the country 
>... that we have tremendous progressive activity at a grass-roots level 
>that is very optimistic," he said. "You look to Washington, you get a very 
>dark picture of the progressive possibilities, but if you go to just about 
>any other place that's got a ZIP code, you find that you've got someone or 
>a bunch of someones that are teamed up."
>
>By mid-afternoon Saturday, Jackson was stirring up a crowd at the 
>festival's main stage, as others circulated among dozens of tables 
>representing individual activist groups ranging from Chicago Community 
>Midwives to the Midwest High Speed Rail Coalition.
>
>Hightower's idea--borrowed from the tradition of political discussion and 
>community gatherings begun at Lake Chataqua, N.Y., in the mid-19th 
>Century--seemed to resonate with many at the park Saturday. Teacher Nancy 
>Hummel, 51, who came to Rolling Thunder with her husband, Jon, 52, from 
>East Lansing, Mich., said the festival reminded her of early 20th Century 
>leftist anarchist Emma Goldman.
>
>"I think that it was Emma Goldman that said, `I don't want to be part of 
>your revolution if I can't dance,'" said Hummel, whose interest in 
>fighting food irradiation--a process that uses radioactive materials to 
>kill food bacteria--was piqued by one of the organizations at the park.
>
>Activists wandered among the information tables, traded information on 
>their preferred causes and took breaks to sign one another's petitions and 
>letters.
>
>"I'm pleased with the turnout--it's a fun event," said Robert Schultz of 
>the human rights group Amnesty International as he signed postcards to 
>encourage elected officials to support high-speed rail in Illinois.
>
>But if they tired of straight-on politics, people at the event could 
>unwind by playing games. A carnival-like area at the park included a 
>federal "Budget Wheel of Fortune," "Knock a Nuke, Build a School" and 
>"Dunk the Lobbyist."
>
>It wasn't a real lobbyist in the dunk tank, just a loud man in a suit. But 
>people seemed to enjoy soaking him anyway.
>
>Copyright © 2002, <http://www.chicagotribune.com/>Chicago Tribune
>
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