The event began with a 5 to 6pm "Books Not Bombs" picket in front of the Duluth School District's office at Lake Ave. & 2nd Street. From there the protesters marched down 2nd Street, led by the Twin Ports new radical cheerleader group - the Rah Rah Revolutionaries. The march culminated at a rally on the steps of City Hall. At the rally the Rah Rah Revolutionaries led us in several cheers, we had an awesome series of local poets read war related poems, as well as a performance of the skit, "War Pigs" - where if it weren't for the timely intervention of the audience, Uncle Sam and the War Pigs would have auctioned off Duluth's City Hall to pay for the wars!
All in all it was a VERY lively and spirited event! The level of chanting and cheering, and the overall energy level, was more than we've seen at a Twin Ports protest in quite some time. And we had a lot of new people at the event, both in the program, and in attendance, which is always a good thing!
I'd like to conclude this report with some special thanks to the folks who helped make the event possible. A big thank you to Fatima and Zaynab Alwan for MCing the event! A big thanks also to the Rah Rah Revolutionaries for leading our march, providing the awesome chants, and helping to distribute hundreds of handbills in downtown Duluth the day of the event! Thanks to all the actors in the "War Pigs" skit (Carl, Marcelle, Rose, Heather, Ira, Amanda, Jenny and Joe)! Thanks to Mike Solon for the sound system and Carl Sack for the press work. And of course special thanks to our brave and talented poets - Amanda, Marcelle, Jenny and Ira! And finally, last, but by no means least, thanks to everyone who turned out tonight! It'll probably take a lot more protests, and with much bigger numbers than we had tonight - but if we keep putting our collective shoulder to the wheel, we can and will end these wars! -Adam Ritscher
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