Making Drone Killing 100% VISIBLE in Chicago!

More at: Can we stop the DRONES?

On Thursday, May 17, we made the drone killing 100% VISIBLE in Chicago.

People from World Can't Wait, Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, and other groups went out onto the streets and showed the faces of the victims to anyone willing to look.

May 17, 2012 - Michigan Avenue in Chicago: Medea Benjamin from
CODEPINK (center) and  her pink cardboard cutout "NO NATO"
machine gun. Joe Scarry (l) carries an oversize poster of a child
victim of a U.S. drone strike. (Photo courtesy FJJ)

There was a lot of noise in Chicago last week. But one message we managed to get through -- at least to some people -- was that people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and many other places are being injured and killed in their names ... and that if that bothers their consciences they can get active and do something about it.

As one report stated:

Some in the lunchtime crowd were listening. “Let’s just say, this morning I wasn’t thinking about drones, and children dying. So it definitely opened my eyes,” one young woman said as she sat in a plaza along Michigan Avenue.

"STOP THE WARS"
(Photo courtesy FJJ)

I'm grateful to Kevin Gosztola for these videos of the reading of drone victims names and display of victim images at the protest:

Outside the Canadian Consulate, NATO Protesters Show Images of Drone Victims
Names of Drone Victims Read by NATO Protesters

And on Monday, May 21, we commemorated all the victims of NATO violence.

What will YOU do to make the victims 100% VISIBLE where YOU live?

"STOP THE WARS -- STOP THE DRONES"
Speak-out at the entrance to the Tribune Building, Michigan Avenue, Chicago.
(Photo courtesy FJJ)

More at: Can we stop the DRONES?



Related posts

At the end of the first day of the 2012 CODEPINK drone conference, I came to a realization: the fundamental problem that we had all gathered to address is that drones render killing 100% invisible. And as long as the killing is invisible, we lose the most powerful tool we have for fighting the killing: the disgust and outrage of the general public.

(See Make Drone Killing 100% VISIBLE!)

 

July 2014 - Many organizations from across the city joined the call by Anti-War Committee – Chicago, Jews for Justice in Palestine, U.S. Palestinian Community Network and 8th Day Center for Justice: Protest Boeing Death Machines in Gaza: Demand Chicago Drop Boeing from Air and Water Show!

(See No Drones Illinois Endorses Call to Drop Boeing from Chicago Air and Water Show)

Year after year, hundreds of thousands of people from Chicago and the surrounding area gather on the lakeshore to watch aerial displays by an array of planes. Most don't suspect that they are being subjected to an intense propaganda effort by multiple branches of the U.S. military.  The Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo views this as a perfect opportunity to engage with the public and enlist them in the growing movement against U.S. war, torture, surveillance, and other crimes.  We will join activists from many other peace and justice groups who have had a growing presence at this event in recent years.

(See August 16-17: Protest U.S. Kidnapping, Torture, and Drone Assassinations at the 2014 Chicago Air and Water Show Protest )