No American city loves St. Patrick's day more than Chicago. Why else would you be silly enough to make your green river even greener!?
Photo credit goes to John Gress/Reuters
Monday, March 13, 2006
Speaking of love for immigrants
An accidental protest
On Friday I managed to get out of the office for lunch. The weather was warm (a balmy 60 degrees!!!) so it made for a nice excuse to take an afternoon walk around the south loop.
I was out for a good 20 minutes when I swung around to Wacker and turned to the south. Out of nowhere I ran up against an enormous wave of people flooding onto Jackson. It was an incredible gathering – thousands and thousands of people. All moving west in a resolute march toward the federal building.
Having no clue what was going on, I stood back and read signs. There were men, women, and children from all walks of life protesting H.R. 4437, the Hastert/Sensenbrenner bill, which is an piece of legislation that could amount to dramatic changes in immigration law.
There’s a funny part of this story and a serious part. I’ll start with the funny…
I sorta ended up protesting with them. Here’s why: I couldn’t figure out how to get back to my building without jumping in with the crowd. There were people flooding down Jackson as far as the eye could see – and my office building is *on* Jackson. At that moment as far as I could tell I was going to have to wait 20 minutes for the enormous march to pass, or join in. So after reading a flyer and establishing that this was not some sort of Nancy Reagan-esque anti-drug event (you know, with Punky Brewster up front), I snuck in between a big group of Irish men and a huge Mexican church group and began to walk down Jackson. I rallied with my peeps for a good three blocks before sneaking back in my building. (Yea, yea, okay, I know I’m weird.)
Here’s the serious part: I suspect that many of you, like me, probably had no clue about the Hastert/Sensenbrenner bill, and its counterpoint, the McCain/Kennedy bill. They truly are worth learning about. While I was walking along with those passionate sincere people, it really embarrassed me that I had absolutely no awareness on the issue. In fact, I think the news report that I paid the most attention to on Friday morning was probably the announcement that Chloe Dao won Project Runway. (Shame shame shame!)
In any case, I really must salute the Mexican Homeland Federation for organizing the march. It was really well run, good-spirited, and succeeded in its goal of education and awareness – at least with me.
I was out for a good 20 minutes when I swung around to Wacker and turned to the south. Out of nowhere I ran up against an enormous wave of people flooding onto Jackson. It was an incredible gathering – thousands and thousands of people. All moving west in a resolute march toward the federal building.
Having no clue what was going on, I stood back and read signs. There were men, women, and children from all walks of life protesting H.R. 4437, the Hastert/Sensenbrenner bill, which is an piece of legislation that could amount to dramatic changes in immigration law.
There’s a funny part of this story and a serious part. I’ll start with the funny…
I sorta ended up protesting with them. Here’s why: I couldn’t figure out how to get back to my building without jumping in with the crowd. There were people flooding down Jackson as far as the eye could see – and my office building is *on* Jackson. At that moment as far as I could tell I was going to have to wait 20 minutes for the enormous march to pass, or join in. So after reading a flyer and establishing that this was not some sort of Nancy Reagan-esque anti-drug event (you know, with Punky Brewster up front), I snuck in between a big group of Irish men and a huge Mexican church group and began to walk down Jackson. I rallied with my peeps for a good three blocks before sneaking back in my building. (Yea, yea, okay, I know I’m weird.)
Here’s the serious part: I suspect that many of you, like me, probably had no clue about the Hastert/Sensenbrenner bill, and its counterpoint, the McCain/Kennedy bill. They truly are worth learning about. While I was walking along with those passionate sincere people, it really embarrassed me that I had absolutely no awareness on the issue. In fact, I think the news report that I paid the most attention to on Friday morning was probably the announcement that Chloe Dao won Project Runway. (Shame shame shame!)
In any case, I really must salute the Mexican Homeland Federation for organizing the march. It was really well run, good-spirited, and succeeded in its goal of education and awareness – at least with me.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Don't worry Josh...
We did go ice skating Millennium Park for my birthday. And let me say this, it’s clear I’m going to need a lot more training before nationals.
The evening was lovely – a great way to ring in 32 years. There were a few surprises: for one, I can still skate backwards (a little). And two, our friend Bruce is really good at skating! (Who knew?! Go Bruce!)
The rest of the gang demonstrated their winter sports skills during the bar crawl – lifting frosty pints like champions. Speaking of which – we *did* start the evening at Berghoffs’ bar. We managed to squeeze through the crowd and grab two tables in the front. The place truly is charming. There was a group of regulars seated right next to us and they kindly bought me a birthday beer. (Thanks Jim!) They also let me in on a secret about the Berghoff “closing” – it may not actually be the end of the Bierhaus’ story after all. I’d reveal the details but it’s all baseless rumor, and truthfully I’m a little scared of setting off a firestorm. (See the comment from Stephen v Funk on my Berghoff post – weird! The people of Internet land found me!)
Next stop - the top of the cock!
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Bring on March!
This evening in yoga our instructor mentioned that on Sunday we moved into the shiva moon cycle (or something like that). Basically it means that if you’ve found yourself grumpy and out of sorts lately – duh!—it’s because you’ve been moving into the shiva cycle of destruction. (Of course!!!)
Anywho, mostly I found this theory convenient to explain why February felt, well… sort of blahh to me. (And why, dear readers, I haven’t posted in a while.)
Or perhaps it’s just Februarys in Chicago. They’re cold, quiet, and full of bad impending Shiva vibes.
Ringo, being A-OK with this whole shiva-destruction thing, found a perfectly harmonious way to cope with February.
Man, I envy that beast.
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