CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
A very visible effort to include typical Chicagoans in the NATO Summit moves forward with a literal kickoff this Saturday morning on the South Side.
About a thousand youngsters will be playing in a series of tournaments this Saturday, from 9 a.m. To 4 p.m. in Washington Park, sponsored by World Sports Chicago and the NATO host committee. They will sponsor competitions in soccer, basketball and wrestling, with some diplomats from NATO countries helping out.
Meanwhile, negotiations continued Thursday between City Hall lawyers and the ACLU over changes the city made in the route and rally location of the first big protest scheduled for May 19. Protestors want to assemble in Daley Plaza, but after they added musician Tom Morello, formerly of Rage Against the Machine, the mayor told me it's likely to draw a bigger crowd and that Grant Park's more appropriate.
"In that individual case, the permit said one thing. And they changed what they wanted to do. So, we said, 'Go to the right place to do that,'" said Mayor Emanuel.
Protest organizers were infuriated by the move from Daley Plaza to Grant Park. But they were pleased by another development. They said the Pritzker Military Library on Michigan Avenue has agreed to host -- and two top officials of NATO itself have agreed to participate in -- a one-hour public discussion on the value of what's generally regarded as the most powerful military alliance the plant's ever seen.
"The people of this city deserve to have a say-so into whether or not a war that is deeply unpopular as the Afghanistan War continues or not," said protest organizer Andy Thayer. "And instead they fill the air waves with trivia about shipping Chicago food specialities to the NATO delegation and so forth, this trivia, when we face literally life and death issues."
