Note: All of the pictures here are down until you don't see this message anymore, due to lack of space. Sorry, working on fixing it.
UPDATE 3/19/2006: This section probably isn't going to be coming back anytime in the near future. If you want to see the pictures, send me an email and I can make you a CD-ROM.
On Saturday, September 18, 2004, Dick Cheney was here in DeKalb for a fundraiser with House Speaker Dennis Hastert (this is Hastert's district, in case ya didn't know; *I* actually didn't know until I read about the fundraiser). Thus, I became part of what I like to call "The Cheney Welcoming Committee." The fundraiser was at the Convocation Center, but we obviously weren't let anywhere near there. What we ended up doing was meeting at a park near the dorms and marching to the intersection of Lincoln Highway and Annie Glidden, which in addition to being one of the busiest intersections in town was also the route that most of the people going to the convo center would have to take. I've read that there were around 500 people at the demonstration, and that's probably accurate. You could always tell who the people going to the fundraiser were; dressed really nice, driving BMW's and Lexus' and shit. Some of them gave us the finger; others just gave a thumbs down. Some just laughed at us, other smiled and waved, as if to say, "Hi, I'm off to destroy the republic!" On the other hand, quite a few people were honking in solidarity with us; probably about every third car that went by. Afterwards, there was a Democratic Party rally back at the park. A bunch of local candidates were there, as were representatives from groups like Firefighters For Kerry and Veterans For Kerry. Senator Dick Durbin was there as well.
Now, if anyone's curious, my sign said "Remember Haiti." And I of course had my Green Party shirt on. I'm surprised I didn't get any snide remarks over that.
Oh, and the Protest Warriors were there too. Sadly, it didn't occur to me to take a picture until they were pretty far away. And one point, I hear someone announcing really loudly that "We're exercising our freedom of speech!" I look over, and I see a sign that says "Go To Hell" (which you can see pretty clearly in the pic). I immediately think, "Yep, that's some Protest Warriors. Wow, they sure told me."
Pic of the stage at the Dem rally. I don't remember offhand who the guy speaking is; I think he was talking about something related to Medicare and Social Security. Durbin's the guy to the right of the lady with the "Register To Vote" sign; Bob Brown (running for state rep.) is the gray-haired dude standing next to him; and I'm pretty sure Ruben Zamora (running for House against Hastert) is the guy in the blue shirt whose head is blocked by the speaker.
