In a stroller, Delaney Nichols attended her first Iraq anti-war protest in Chicago in 1991. Her parents, Mary Kay Ryan and Brian Nichols, who have lived in Oak Park since 1988, were both involved in the Vietnam War era, so rolling their toddler to an anti-war rally made sense. Since then, their oldest daughter, now a senior at the University of Chicago’s Lab School, says her interest in social and political activism, like herself, has grown up.
Initially, it was the hawkish U.S. response to the tragedy of 9/11 that forced Delaney to develop more sophistication in the opinions she already possessed. By age 13, she was a practicing pacifist, and when the U.S. started waging war in Afghanistan and then invaded Iraq, the teenager was furious. In October of 2002, with her folks, she attended the initial Iraq anti-war demonstration in Chicago.
Then in 2005, the young radical, as she likes to call herself, became a lobbyist in Springfield for the Illinois Congress for Adolescent Health. With others, she curried favor for a bill that would bring comprehensive sex education into public schools in Chicago. It passed.
That same year, she joined a small social action of 100 women outside an Osco in downtown Chicago. They were protesting the refusal of some pharmacists to distribute the morning-after pill to women who had prescriptions for it. Related to that widely publicized protest, she says, Governor Blagojevich passed an emergency bill stating that nobody could withhold emergency contraception, which later became law.
Two weeks ago, Delaney, now 17, hopped a bus with her sister, Darcy, 15, and dad, Brian, 56, to join the “United for Peace and Justice March on the Capitol” in Washington D.C. to protest President Bush’s proposed escalation of the Iraq war; up next is the March on the Pentagon, which will step off at the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial on March 17. Organizers hope it will send another strong message to Congress, while commemorating the 40th anniversary of the historic D.C. demonstration against the war in Vietnam in 1967.
“I was involved in the ’60s,” says Brian Nichols, a Biology professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago. “I thought when raising our kids, if you teach them what truth is, how to find it, and how to figure out what is true when you are presented with all kinds of information, then in the end, they will choose truth. When we saw some fliers about the United for Peace March in Washington, Mary Kay had a previous engagement, so she said, ‘Brian, take the girls to the march.’ I said, ‘Oh, OK.’ When we learned about the busses, which were inexpensive and left Friday afternoon and got back Sunday morning, I thought it was a really good way of going there, being at the march and participating, and getting home in time to go to work on Monday.”
Taking the Peace Bus
As the Nichols pulled up to the Art Institute, they saw two yellow school buses, and thought, “Oh no!” Nichols recalled, laughing. Luckily, two larger, more comfortable buses pulled up after that. The trip was organized by United for Peace but sponsored by the International Socialist Organization. Once on board, Delaney said most of the people on board were in their 20s, including a large contingent of crazy college-age friends, most of whom had way too many holes in their jeans and lots of body piercing. Behind the sisters sat two older couples, and nearby was one other high school-age kid. During the ride there and back, satiric Vietnam-era videos and some current comedy shows played from the on-board TV screens. While most people tried to get some sleep, because of the energy and noise, it wasn’t easy.
“The bus came with a microphone, and everyone got up to share what had moved them to get on the bus and ride 18 hours in the middle of the night to D.C.,” Delaney recalls. “It was really moving, and established a relationship between us. There was a group of Hispanic people from the Pilsen neighborhood. They were involved with immigrants’ rights and saw the connection between the government, the war and immigration issues.
“One of them said she had a friend who was in Iraq, and after 1 1/2 years came back. He wasn’t hurt, but within a year of being home, he had been shot and killed in the streets of Chicago. For her it so clearly represented the war at home, the war abroad, and how the U.S. has decided that we have to fix other people’s problems before we address our own. Another guy was saying that he had a buddy in Iraq who came back and since returning hasn’t been the same person. He said he loves him, but he knows that he’ll never be the same, and knows it was the result of the war, and we have to stop it.”
On one level, said Delaney, who plans to pursue a course of study that includes social activism next year in college, it was really fun taking a road trip with her younger sister. They sat next to each other, listening to their iPod play list, which consisted of going-to-the-demonstration songs, including, of course, Crosby Stills and Nash.
“I really liked doing this with my sister and Dad,” Delaney said. “I think Darcy tends to be very free-spirited, and, in the family, [has] the reputation of being argumentative. So it was fun being involved in something where we were definitely on the same page, where we could talk about it, and know that these things were important to us. Even if we don’t agree about some things, we do have this bond of sisters.”
At the march
Brian, who says he was raised in a liberal Democratic family, personally likes to go to anti-war rallies because it is important to be physically out on the street demonstrating that he is one of the people who does not agree. The bus arrived in D.C. at 9 a.m., and once on the National Mall, the threesome navigated the multitudes close to the stage and eventually headed toward the Capitol Building steps. They noticed armed police guarding the Capitol building from the people, Brian said. Within minutes, “a group of anarchists” ran up to the steps carrying red and black flags. The Nichols girls ended up in the center of the fracas-200 people against the police. More police arrived on motorcycles.
“There was lots of hollering and so forth,” Brian said. “Delaney and Darcy were in the middle of it, and I was on the edge telling them to be careful, and talking on the cellphone to Mary Kay [for advice]. I went up to Delaney and Darcy and told them to stay on the flanks, back two layers from the police, and [pointed out] a 3-foot wall that they could jump over to get out of there quickly if the crowd started to rush.
“At first, Delaney was sure I was pulling her out of there, but I just wanted them to be aware of their surroundings in case they had to split. What I learned about my girls from that was that Delaney knows where the energy is and will get there before it arrives. I tend to be one who stays on the fringe of that kind of energy, but Delaney and Darcy like to go right up to it.”
Mary Kay, who has been in protests before, said later she didn’t have a problem with having her daughters there, but wanted them to be fully conscious and alert.
“I just didn’t want them getting hurt,” said the mother who practices Chinese Medicine and home-schools her youngest. “You always want to be aware of the crowd, and certainly don’t want to be stupid,” she said.
Other than this tussle, the Nichols agreed the Jan. 27 march overall was a very orderly. The majority of protesters didn’t come to fight the power. They were there to take a stand against the troop escalation and the war in Iraq.
“I saw a lot of military families, a lot of mothers or fathers with children, so I didn’t feel that everyone there would be on the same page in terms of political beliefs, but there was a rallying point that this war is wrong,” Delaney said.
In November, Brian and Mary Kay loaded their van with fellow activists and headed to the School of the Americas at Fort Benning (Columbus, Ga.) to protest the torture techniques being taught there. Mary Kay, whose mother was a civil rights worker, adds that she was also raised by a father who considered himself an anarchist and said that a liberal is someone who has false feet planted in mid-air, so she doesn’t feel the term is complimentary, although she knows it is often meant to be. Instead she prefers “social activists,” who, by example, have consciously engaged their children in intellectual and political conversations from an early age, encouraging them to form their own opinion based on truth and consistently challenging them to defend it.
“[When it comes to taking action] I often find people saying, oh gosh, it seems so big, what can I do? Like global warming-it’s the whole world,” Brian said. “I tell them to start small and be comfortable with what they can do, even if it’s a little bit. If all you want to do is make a phone call once a week, you can do that; it is something. If you want to go out and buy a hybrid car, that’s another thing. If you want to go out and demonstrate, that’s something else. Not everyone can do everything, but everyone should be doing a little bit of something, even if it is lobbying your compatriots to make sure that everyone you come across knows what is happening outside their world.”
Since getting back home, Delaney has been liberally sharing her protest experience with anyone who will listen-friends, co-workers and people she meets on and off the street.
“Everyone I talk to knows that those ‘tens of thousands’ crowd estimates were ridiculous,” she says. “The conversation always moves to the March on the Pentagon, and I say, ‘Hey, you should go.’ My current goal is to get to Washington D.C. on March 17 and to get as many people as I know to go with me. I’m not sure about the logistics yet, but I would definitely do the bus again.”