Holodomor

Tonight, Chicago’s Ukrainian community gathered in front of the Old Water Tower to commemorate Holodomor—the 1932-33 famine that killed between three and ten million Ukrainian. Nature did not cause the famine. It was man-made, the author being Joseph Stalin, who used genocide to suppress an Ukrainian independence movement. The Ukrainian community draws the obvious parallels between Stalin and Putin, so this commemoration was really a protest against the ongoing war in Ukraine. Here are my thoughts about the demonstration, together with my images from the event.

Columbus Day

I stop to photograph this year’s Columbus Day Parade on my way to my annual physical. The parade is a shadow of the one staged for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off; although the film did not identify the parade as the Columbus Day Parade. I ended up racing around so much that the doctor had to wait 20 minutes before taking my blood pressure because I was dripping with sweat when I arrived in his office—112/78.

Here are my thoughts about what I saw and the images I captured.

Counterproductive

Saturday’s abortion rights demonstration in Chicago’s Federal Plaza proved more interesting than I expected. A large group of Iranians participated, hoping to shine a light on the rights of Iranian women in light of the death of Masha Amini while in custody. I also was physically attacked (not by the Iranians). Here are thoughts on the experience, as well as my images.