Chicago Anti-Torture Protest: This is About Humanity!

We had a banner which read “Torture=War Crime / PROSECUTE!”, signs, a bullhorn, and our drive to stop the torture of human beings. Major assets for us were enlarged posters of a few paintings by Fernando Botero of Abu Ghraib, which were very effective. They caught a lot of attention and allowed anyone interested to take a flyer and find out more information. We were met by a range of emotions: confusion, hostility, intense anger, and much support.

A handful of people we encountered around the Art Institute had no idea how severe the torture are, that Guantanamo Bay is in fact still open and torture is still being used, and that Obama supports the use of torture “if necessary” and he has decided to not prosecute the Bush Administration for war crimes. When we brought out that not taking a side in the debate over torture and justice for the victims of these crimes against humanity is tantamount to being “good Germans” of the Nazi era, we polarized things further, attracting the attention of some who were stuck by the seriousness with which we were taking this critical issue. One person in our group kept emphasizing, “This is about our HUMANITY!”

We moved down to the Armed Forces Day at Navy Pier. We were greeted by tree sized inflatable male Marines with bulging biceps, and immediately walking past us was a group of underage recruits being shown how to march in formation. As we walked to our permitted “Free Speech Zone,” we witnessed children no older than 10 being shown how to hold actual guns. Being so disgusted with their recruiting for torture, we took out place in our “Zone” adjacent to a not-so-friendly cluster of soldiers letting kids play in a convoy while insistently asking the police chief to make sure we wouldn’t “block the display.”

Shortly after we set up, we were met with a woman very offended at us being there. She yelled that we “had no right to criticize her husband’s service and that we should be grateful that they ‘fought for our right to be saying what we were saying.’” Another instance of high emotion was shown when that woman walked away and another “any means necessary” supporter claimed as well that we had no right to dishonor the soldiers. This was the only big “scene” of the whole day. They eventually walked away, while we continued to hold our Botero paintings and challenge the spectators of this circus: “What are they recruiting for? MURDER, RAPE, TORTURE, WAR!”

Later on in the day after more than 1,000 flyers had been passed out, one member spoke to a solider at who agreed with us, “Torture is wrong, and those who carried out the acts should have disobeyed orders.” This is a pretty strong and refreshing opinion to see in a currently active solider. Boldly dismantling this pro-war propaganda and cutting through to the stark reality that the military, as a whole, is carrying out war crimes opens up space for the consciences of these young men and women to activate.

Green Fest Chicago, featuring everyone from Amy Goodman to Mayor Daley, brought together tens of thousands of environmentally conscious people inside the convention center at Navy Pier. We reached out to people there too – a much friendlier crowd. There, instead of naked pro-torture sentiments, we found a lot of anger but also confusion and paralysis. Many there argued that even now, we must “stand behind Obama” if we want to see anything positive happen in the world. “How about standing on our principles and demanding nothing less than prosecutions and a complete end to war crimes?”

On the way home, one unstoppable resistor continued to pass out hundreds of flyers for the upcoming protest against Karl Rove… challenging everyone around to stop thinking like an American, and start thinking as a human being.