The media’s runup to this weekend’s NATO summit may have given many of us the impression that all of the protesters spread across downtown and far-flung neighborhoods are out-of-towners and that their sincerest wish is to bump into groups of NATO dignitaries and give them a piece of their minds about military action in Afghanistan and beyond.
But in our attempt to profile individual protesters and how they came to Chicago, we found many locals sprinkled throughout the crowds and, sometimes, entire gatherings were organized around local issues.
Zakiyyah S. Muhammad Saturday joined a rally close to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s home. On the agenda: the consolidation of city mental health clinics. Muhammad assured our reporter Odette Yousef that there’s a tie between international politics and what’s happening locally in Chicago.
Muhammad on NATO and local mental health services: