Chicago Walk for Choice

I went to the Walk for Choice yesterday in Chicago with two family members, and it was great. The weather was cold and snowy, but we didn’t let that dampen our enthusiasm. An anti-choice counter-protest showed up, but their crowd was smaller than ours. And their chants were kind of lame, too. The one I heard went “we love babies, yes we do, we love babies, how ’bout you?” Well, yes, I like babies. Who doesn’t? My goal is to make sure all babies are wanted babies. Our chants included “Gay, straight, black, white, all unite for women’s rights;” “Not the church, not the state, women must decide their fate”; “Pro-life, your name’s a lie, you don’t care if women die”; and “my body, my choice,” among others.

And the crowd really was pretty diverse: a couple with kids in strollers, older women, younger women, people of color, and people from Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio as well as Illinois and many other places. The crowd was estimated at 600 to 800 people. The organization could have been better, however; the Google map of the route was pretty confusing, and it was unclear whether the march would last for two or three hours. The organizers also seemed to be depending on people having access to Twitter to communicate, which wasn’t possible for everyone. But they did a great job of throwing everything together so fast, and I appreciate all of their work. Big thanks and gratitude also to the Chicago police for being polite when we didn’t have a permit, and for keeping everyone safe.

Overall, we made our voices heard and got a lot of support from drivers and pedestrians going about their day. We also had a chance to stop by the MoveOn rally in support of unions and show our solidarity. We won’t let Republicans start stripping us of our rights, and we’re stronger when we stand together.

Did you attend a walk or rally yesterday? How did it go?

Countdown to the Oscars, 2011

I’m more excited for the Academy Awards this year than I have been for any since 2004, when “Return of the King” swept all of the awards. I’m attending an Oscar party tonight that I’m looking forward to. I’ve seen nine of the 10 movies nominated for best picture; the only one I didn’t get to was “127 Hours.” I saw “The Fighter,” although I didn’t write a review of it. The first half had me wondering why I’d wasted my money, but the second half really picked up and was very good. If Christian Bale wins for best supporting actor, he will have earned it.

I’m reserving judgment on James Franco and Anne Hathaway hosting the show, although the clips below are pretty amusing:

You can find a full list of nominees here. I enjoyed “The King’s Speech” the most out of all the movies I saw, so I will be rooting for it to win, but there are a lot of deserving nominees this year. I’ll have a reaction post tomorrow.