When founder Joan Blades and others at MoveOn.org, an online grassroots political action group, emailed members for personal stories to include in their new book "50 Ways to Love your Country," they were surprised to receive more than 2,000 responses. At a time when public discontent with the government is high and voter turnout is embarrassingly low--only 51 percent of eligible voters voted in 2000--you wouldn't think Americans were doing much to love or to change a country in which only half seem interested. But MoveOn got stories about everything from changing pothole regulations affecting poor farmers in rural Oklahoma to underdog efforts in Senate races in Missouri. Turns out loving your country can be tough love: protesting, writing, speaking, taking a stand--it all counts. MoveOn.org found thousands of people Blades calls "accidental activists, who never planned on becoming any kind of leaders or anything in politics, but who saw something that was just not appropriate going on." The book argues that patriotism doesn't have to be a diehard, rah-rah, go-America attitude. According to Blade, "Patriotism is participation. And there are really an infinite number of ways to do that." On a Fourth of July when there are plenty of people who are less than thrilled with the actions of their country, there's a great way to be patriotic: do something, anything, about it.


#1 Register
Baron de Montesquieu once said, "The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy." He was evidently right. "We saw evidence of the fact that every vote does count in the last election in Florida," says Tom Leach, spokesman for the Chicago Election Board. Register to vote at places like the office of the Board of Elections, your county clerk's office, any Chicago Public Library or with one of 8,000 volunteer deputy registrars. Bring two forms of identification, including one that shows your address. Otherwise, download a form from the Illinois State Board of Elections website (http://www.elections.state.il.us/Voteinfo/Pages/VoteRegForms.htm ) and mail it to the local county clerk's office. What's more, you can make sure that everyone you know is registered, too. One Chicagoan says he hands out forms and stamps to anyone he meets who is unregistered--"no guilt trip, I just hand them the forms"--and out of 200 attempts has registered about thirty-five voters. Just make sure your documents are postmarked at least 29 days before the general election on November 2.

#2 Protest
Dara Greenwald, member of the all-female activist group The Pink Bloque, slips into a weather--and cause--appropriate pink uniform when her ten-person group goes out to protest American injustice. The Pink ladies perform choreographed dances on the street and subvert pop culture into piecemeal protest material; they turned Britney Spears lyrics into antiwar protest and led an UnJustified Tour during Justin Timberlake's Justified Tour. "We're just trying to make protesting more appealing to more people," says Greenwald. Groups can sign up for a workshop on creative protesting by contacting info@pinkbloque.org.

#3 Resist
Buddy Gallery, associated with twelve-year-old magazine Lumpen, exports Chicago creative culture and resistance projects to the city and world beyond. "The artists tend to communicate ways of getting involved with society, instead of consuming," says Buddy member and Lumpen publisher, Edmar Marszewski. Buddy's workshops and demonstrations, from late July's fashion show "Ready to Revolt" to the past street performance "Fatherland Dissent," which condemned the hypocrisy of homeland security, are meant to encourage people to be civic-minded and to express dissent. So will Marszewski wave the flag this Fourth? Maybe the Adbuster flag, the one that replaces the stars with fifty corporate logos.

#4 Rap
As a 28-year-old activist who uses hip-hop to encourage his peers to become politically engaged, T.J. Crawford embodies leadership in his generation. The founder of the Chicago Hip Hop Political Action Committee and co-founder of June's National Hip Hop Convention in New Jersey (coming to Chicago in 2006) describes himself as an "idea guy." He's taking an offshoot of the national convention, the People for President campaign, to the streets of Chicago through truck ads, weekly meetings and a monthly magazine. Positive, spiritual language--like "provide synergy" or "register to vote, register to win"--defines his self-expression, but he occasionally leaks mini-rants on corporate America for adopting hip-hop to promote harmful products.

#5 Believe
"Many ideas of fair play and equality I absorbed being an American. Looking at cowboy movies and Westerns, the good guys are always against economic exploitation," says Salim Muwakkil, senior editor of In These Times, a Chicago-based biweekly newsmagazine. Growing up in Harlem, living through the Long Hot Summer Riots, and making a beeline to the Black Panther Party after returning from service in Vietnam, Muwakkil was "born in the spirit of protest." "I'm a little leery of any flag. A flag is a rag quite frankly... The values we profess are worthy. The problem is we have to translate those rhetorical noises into real policies and too often we haven't done that. The more we do that, the more American we can be."

#6 See
Over the weekend, Michael Moore's much-hyped "Fahrenheit 9/11" played to sold-out crowds across the country, racking up an estimated $23.9 million, already more than "Bowling for Columbine" collected during its entire theatrical run. "The experience was akin to that of a 'Blair Witch' sort of mayhem," says Charlie Moore, a manager at Landmark Century Cinema Centre. "We were adding screenings at the last minute, and even those sold out. And even the people who didn't get to see the film because of the sellouts were extremely kind and patient about it, which was really nice to see. It was different than any other commercial film." Meanwhile, "Control Room," Jehane Noujaim's documentary on Al Jazeera's coverage of the war in Iraq, currently runs in art houses. It's quite possible that these films may force a few people to question the authenticity of "fair and balanced" news coverage, and they're sure to be a hot topic around the water cooler for months to come.

#7 Participate
Though involved in several bicycling organizations and clubs in Chicago, Howard Kaplan says he thought the group Critical Mass was "a terrible idea," until he got caught in the Mass while driving his car. Seeing that it was "a celebration" and not "this militant angry sort of mob," Kaplan decided to join a Mass ride. "I started riding and thought it was pretty thrilling to ride on some of the major streets and feel completely safe." Critical Mass meets the last Friday of every month at 5pm at Daley Plaza to ride through Chicago as a commanding group of cyclists with a political message about bicycle safety and the environment. Howard encourages people to come to the Mass and meet people, as everyone, even car owners like himself, is welcome. Kaplan says the rides have anywhere from fifty to 1200 bikers, depending on the weather. Kaplan describes his first ride: "I felt like I was counted, kind of like when you go to vote. I didn't really feel accepted or that I fit in, just like I was going to be counted."

#8 Understand
Stephen Elliot, a writer whose fictional work has been inspired by a violent childhood as a ward of Illinois, is an unlikely candidate to document the 2004 presidential campaign trail. The man who didn't vote until he was 28 years old says he only became "political" after a ballot initiative passed in California forced juveniles into the adult penal system. "Having been a ward of the court myself, when that passed, I felt physically ill. I felt I had really failed at a fundamental level." Elliot's first nonfiction book, "Looking Forward To It, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the American political system," is "about a guy on the campaign trail who doesn't know how to be a journalist or anything like that. A normal person trying to figure it out," he says. Elliott adds, "America has done a lot of good things, and a lot of bad things, too. The point is not to drop out. If there's something going on that's not good, you need to go out and do something about it."

#9 Dance
DJ Chris Baronner (DJ CB) says during "Life During Wartime" dance parties, he tries to mix in an mp3 of something like the clip of "Bush being an ass and not being able to pronounce Abu Ghraib." Baronner and Chess Hubbard (DJ Mother Hubbard) started "Life During Wartime" as a concept that mixes partying with a political message. "I think of it as positive association," says Hubbard; people distribute flyers and homemade buttons featuring political slogans like, "Dance is in, Bush is out" while the DJs spin, throwing in the occasional "rant" about voting and political awareness. Though not officially partisan, the DJs explain that most "crazy young people that go out clubbing are the type of people who don't like Bush but tend not to take politics as much to heart" as others who vote conservatively. But, Hubbard says, "that's scary because we live in the U.S. too." Find information about "Life During Wartime" dance parties, of which there are three to four each month at either the Hideout or the Darkroom, at www.haistar.com/LDW.html.

#10 Host
If former Senate candidate Jack Ryan's tastes ran in the direction of "key parties," his opponent Barack Obama's supporters seem to prefer slightly more low-key house parties. On June 29, hundreds of Illinois residents hosted and attended house gatherings to raise money and garner support for Obama's senatorial campaign. Pamela Bozeman-Evans, Director of Volunteer Services for the Obama for Illinois campaign, says: "The goal of the event was to raise friends and funds for the campaign." According to Bozeman-Evans, more than 145 people hosted house parties, even though the campaign had only planned for 100. "Each host was asked to raise a minimum of $500 and to invite as many friends, family, and neighbors as possible," says Bozeman-Evans. Additionally, "Each household was invited to participate in a statewide conference call with Barack and Michelle Obama." Another round of parties is planned for early September.

#11 Organize
An intern for Illinois State Senatorial candidate Barack Obama and ardent supporter of the campaign to get his boss elected to the United States Senate, Conor O'Neil has steadily moved himself to the inside margin of Illinois left politics. O'Neil's Clio Society at Northwestern University, "a forum for the arts and humanities," has worked with an impressive roster of figures since its founding a short time ago in 2002. The list includes Lawrence Lessig and Cass Sunstein, and Clio recently scored major visibility by organizing the Tom Frank, Studs Terkel and Howard Dean event at the Harold Washington Library. "My dad being a University of Chicago professor, that's where I get all these ideas from, which is what it's really all about. He used to have these cocktail parties and we'd all have these great conversations." It's an organization that O'Neil founded largely to cross-pollinate the world of left politics and culture, and his work with it has planted whatever ambitions he may have in a diverse soil. Harvesting that ambition may take a while yet, however. After all, O'Neil's still in his early twenties, a child by most standards for a political career. As a member of the wealthy McCormick family, whatever O'Neil eventually sets his sights on won't likely be out of reach, either politically, philosophically or financially.

#12 Defy
Not very many Americans would go to prison to stand up for their beliefs. But as a founding member of Voices in the Wilderness, Kathy Kelly's politics led her to do just that. A three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Kelly recently finished her three-month jail sentence at the Pekin Federal Prison Camp in Pekin, Illinois. Her imprisonment drew her significant support, with her send-off to serve as a "prisoner of conscience" attended by friend and prominent Chicagoan Studs Terkel. Active while in behind bars, her correspondence can be read at the Voices in the Wilderness website at http://vitw.us. Kelly was sentenced to the time for her November 2003 illegal crossing onto Fort Benning military base property "as a form of protest against the School of the Americas/Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHISC)." During her arrest at Fort Benning, Kelly was hogtied and shackled in wrist and ankle restraints, an experience she details alongside subsequent reports of her trial and eventual incarceration. At one point, the FBI visited her cell to discuss Iraq and she responded by asking them to consider resigning their jobs with the Bureau. It's a stunning act of defiance often repeated in Kelly's letters to Voices readers. "Her experience speaks a lot to the disconnect in this country," says Danny Muller, co-coordinator with Voices, who works closely with Kelly. "A year and a half after the war, most people don't know the name of anybody in Iraq except Saddam." Each and every report of Kelly's experience serves as a kind of manual for political protestors who wish to read firsthand accounts of the consequences--and the immense reportorial value--of wartime dissent.

By Nicholas Baer, Jessica Herman, Emily Fleischaker, Mehan Jayasuriya, Tom Lynch and Michael Workman

(2004-06-29)

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