I was on the train the other day, isolated between my headphones, on a mission that was taking me south to Little Village. I thought I detected a strange sound, like a loud buzzing, but ignored it because I was listening to Brother Ali. It got louder, though, and I realized it was a human noise, so I paused the ipod and left my headphones on for the sake of subtelty.

Two things were striking. First, this man was screeching so loudly that my ears would have hurt if not for the protection offered by my headphones. Second, everyone on the train was ignoring him. Here was a wild, uncensored human spectacle, and everyone–myself included–was pretending this was normal.

Then his shouting became angry. He started spitting on the floor. After a few minutes of deciphering his squawks, I realized he was talking about the war in Iraq. I’m not really sure what his point was, but he mentioned a lot of other countries, and kept growling, “Never before…!” so I think he was mad about the manufacture of evidence for invasion. Several people slinked off the train at Clark/Divison and he started jittering. By Chicago Avenue he was on his feet, and before we hit Grand and State he was violently smacking his umbrella against an empty seat. He alternated between baseball-style swats and screechy mumbles–swat, squawk, swat, squawk, swat–and then his umbrella broke.

This was a profound moment. He watched the broken pieces roll down the back of the train, and his face was filled with a deep sadness, as if to say, “What have I done?” He sat down in silence and barely spoke for the rest of the ride. I realized that what I had just witnessed was an allegory for the entire antiwar movement in this country: shouting so loudly nobody cares to listen, banging things only to hurt themselves, accomplishing nothing. I can’t express this futility better than Speech from Arrested Development did when he said:

They’re praising a God that watches you weep
and doesn’t want you to do a damn thing about it
When they want change the preacher says “shout it”
Does shouting bring about change ? I doubt it
All shouting does is make you lose your voice

And that’s why I love taking the train.