Behind us, the Grannies have just launched another song with the lines, "We're the Raging Grannies, we're as mad as mad can be""
"Activism on campus is too low," he continues.
I ask why he thinks this might be.
"Television," mutters one of his friends.
"To a large extent, it's pop culture, the images the media offers, bombarding people with values destructive to their well being."
Are his friends here?
"Some are, but a lot of young people won't come to something like this. There has to be more of an incentive to come down than just an antiwar protest. That's the truth of it. It can't just be a cause. For whatever reason, they're not going to come out and show their numbers unless there's a concert or some kind of entertainment. If it's just going to be standing around or walking in the street, they're not as likely to do it. Unfortunately, they'd rather stay home, get high, and watch TV."
Sleepless Nights
She's holding the end of a large banner: "Military Families Speak Out, Chicago, Illinois." The person at the other end of the banner has directed me to her. When I approach Ginger Williams and ask if she'd consider a brief interview, she replies with spirit, "Bring it on!" And then goes: "Whoops! Maybe that's the wrong thing to say""
She's 54, wearing a black U.S. Army baseball cap, a Support-Our-Troops T-shirt and button, and a black backpack. When asked what she does, she replies, "I'm a nurse, homemaker, mother, protester, whatever you got."
Her son returned from his first tour of Iraq only three days earlier. "Sean was at Notre Dame and volunteered for Army ROTC after September 11th. He's been in two years, a first lieutenant with the 101st Airborne. He just served eleven months in Iraq where he commanded convoys that guarded trucks that are mainly owned by Halliburton. He wasn't wounded, thank God. We had a lot of sleepless nights.
"I was against the war from the start. My husband was an infantryman, a Vietnam Vet. He was strongly against it. But my son believes in the mission. He believes he's there to bring peace and stability to the region. We disagree but we get along. We raised him to think for himself -- and he did. He says he's going to volunteer to go back.
"I hope that my son's right, but I think the only chance that things will end in Iraq is if we get out. We're just inflaming matters by being there.
"I've been to Fayetteville, to Washington, to Camp Casey. Everywhere I go, I keep thinking this is going to be the turning point. That march on Washington in September, then when John Murtha came out against the war -- Marine, congressman, purple-heart winner. I thought that would be it. Now, I'm kind of pessimistic really. It doesn't seem to matter what we do. And you know what I'm really upset with -- all the Democratic leaders who won't take a stand!
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