A luncheon at Ditka’s put on by the Chicago chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences finished with jumbled scenes from Gone With the Wind playing on five overhead TV sets. Pretend battles and a resplendent Vivien Leigh had been cannibalized to decorate this music video. As the sound was turned down, Essee Kupcinet took the floor to introduce TV news anchorman Bill Kurtis, who was moderating a panel on covering a war almost as distant as the Civil War.
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The May 10 Committee to Resist All Celebrations of War took up a position across from the main media base, which was encamped by the reviewing stand. Earlier, Pledge of Resistance had issued a leaflet entitled “Challenge the Parade of Lies,” urging protesters to “create images that demand attention” since “it will take creativity to combat May 10th’s glorification of war.” Wear black and red ribbons, suggested the Revolutionary Communist Party, instead of the yellow ones symbolizing “cowardice.”
On the eve of the “Welcome Home” parade, demonstrators had gathered one more time at Federal Plaza. The turnout was small, the bullhorn sounded feeble. Most eloquent was a giant yellow ribbon splattered with bloody red paint.
One of the more notorious alumni of the School of the Art Institute, flag-on-the-floor artist “Dread” Scott Tyler, participated in a sidewalk press conference before the parade stepped off. A radio reporter wearing a “U.S.A. #1” button held out his microphone as Tyler challenged four-star general Colin Powell to a nationally televised debate on proper role models for African American schoolboys. A couple hours later, when the parade passed by, a marcher held aloft a large portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. Pushing a stay-in-school message, the standard-bearer sidestepped King’s vehement opposition to the Vietnam war prior to his assassination.
Simply winning was enough. What was won was not the point. The parade celebrated light casualties for our side, but there were moments of silence for the Illinois dead. Although Israel was cited in a banner leading the parade, Kuwaitis and Kurds were off the map. A parade without politics has no place in Chicago, yet at this one politicians made a show of not exploiting the event. With no elections in sight, this was not much of a sacrifice.
