From Josh Dubin:

Chicago, the windy city. We flew into Chicago late Sunday night from San Francisco. We got to our hotel around 1:30 AM and we got to sleep late the next morning.

We began our stay in Chicago with a very deep discussion about… pizza… Chicago deep-dish pizza. And what better place to have this discussion than Ginos East Pizza in downtown Chicago. With deep dish pizza that is over an inch deep we all left the restaurant a little larger.

We walked it off on our way to the office of Professor Bill Ayers. Bill was a member of the revolutionary group of the 60’s & 70’s called the Weathermen and the Weather Underground. He is now a professor at the University of Illinois. He spoke briefly about his life as a member of an organization that blew up buildings in an attempt to overthrow the government as well as his time living underground. We then spoke about our time, our generation and the need to create change. He left us with two quotes that have had huge impact on us. One was of a woman who was in her 80s and she told someone, “I am, but I am not yet”. We spoke about the fact that we are always learning and always growing. He then spoke to us about the need to not be afraid to change our beliefs when we get new information by telling us “Mao was not a Maoist, Jesus was not a Christian and Buddha was not a Buddhist.

After getting the weather report it was up, up, up the Sears Tower. From the 103rd floor we could see all of the second city. On a clear day, 5 states can be seen.

With our heads full of new ideas, thoughts and questions, we did what people do in Chicago on a beautiful summer day. We went to hang out by Lake Michigan. We spent a relaxing hour just taking in the sights of the skyline and just laying on the grass next to the lake.

“Take me out to the ball game”. You can’t be in Chicago for 5 minutes without seeing a Cubs hat so we headed to Wrigley Field to walk around the historic baseball stadium. We then went to see some Improv Comedy at the ImprovOlympix. After a night of laughs we all fell asleep very quickly.

We started our second day with our second Chicago professor. Craig Lamay is a professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He is a master of the First Amendment. He spoke to us about freedom of speech and if there should be limitations set upon it by giving us the history of various court cases involved with this issue. For example, he taught us that we owe many of our first amendment freedoms to such groups as the KKK, Neo-Nazis and other hate groups. They have led to court decisions that define what limits, if any, we can have on speech. We also spoke about the current administrations use of the Patriot Act.

It was lunchtime so we went into downtown Evanston to a Thai Restaurant and celebrated Daniel Riff’s 16th birthday. His cake was decorated with a map of the United States. We all enjoyed eating our home state or favorite Etgar stop.

After the party we went to Grant Park and Billy spoke to us about the 1968 Democratic Convention. We toured the park to see where the students gathered to protest and the hotel where the Democratic leaders met. To wrap it up we listened to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A- Changing”.

Etgar 36 got a little culture as we spent time roaming the halls of the Chicago Art Institute museum. Everyone saw some of their most favorite paintings. After that we walked onto Michigan Avenue and window shopped on the magnificent mile. We had dinner at Water Tower Place and saw the only building to survive the Chicago fire. After dinner it was back on the bus as we headed to another city (Cleveland) to learn, explore and venture.

Bill Ayers, author, professor and former 60s radical, teaching us history by showing us clippings on his office door

Speaking with Bill Ayers about activism

Bill Ayers signing his book his days wuth the Weather Underground that he gave the teens

Chicago was our kind of town

Professor Craig Lamay of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism speaking about freedom of speech

Celebrating Daniel Riff’s 16th birthday

Entering Northwestern University in Evanston