Thousands gathered in downtown Oak Park on Saturday, June 14, to participate in the “No Kings” protest against US President Donald Trump.
The protest was part of a national series of demonstrations against the president on the day, with protest organizers predicting more than 1,800 protests associated with the “No Kings” movement on Saturday.
The Oak Park protest was one of several in Chicagoland on Saturday, with the largest attracting an estimated 20,000 people to Downtown Chicago’s Daley Plaza. Other suburban communities, including Geneva, Evanston, Arlington Heights, and Joliet, also held “No Kings” protests.
The protest was part of a national series of anti-presidential demonstrations on the day, with protest organizers predicting over 1,800 “No Kings” protests on Saturday.
The crowd on Lake Street Saturday far outnumbered a similar anti-Trump demonstration in April.
Attendees of the Oak Park protest said they came out to protest Trump’s policies of increasing deportations, cutting federal department budgets, and consolidating executive power.
“There can not be kings and there can not be fascism,” said Lori Sadowski, a longtime Oak Park resident who now lives in Grayslake. “I do not recognize the United States right now at all.”
The nationwide “No Kings” protests were scheduled to coincide with a large military parade in Washington, D.C. on Saturday evening, which would commemorate both Trump and the 250th anniversary of the United States Army.
The Army birthday celebration had been planned for several months. However, earlier this spring, Trump announced plans to turn the event into a massive military parade, complete with 60-ton M1 Abrams battle tanks and Paladin self-propelled howitzers rolling through the city streets, according to the Associated Press.
Oak Parker William F. Short attended the protest with his son Brendan, seated in his wheelchair and holding a neon yellow sign that proudly declared him a 100-year-old World War II veteran. Short stated that he had never lived under a president like Trump and was having difficulty understanding modern American politics.
He said he was appalled by Trump’s military parade because it did not honor his generation’s sacrifices.
“We fought for this country, it was a rough time, and we lost a lot of people but they did not die so a guy like this would take over their country,” says Short. “It is as if we will not be a democracy anymore. When he gets through, you will no longer have a country. You have people thinking in so many crazy ways; this is so far from where we should be.
Short’s granddaughter, Elizabeth Short, is a freelance writer for the Wednesday Journal.
Fakih Seals, another Oak Park veteran who attended the protest with his young family, stated that it was important for him to show his children the value of protest and patriotism coexisting.
“I want them to see democracy in action, as well as people speaking up,” Seals said, holding a folded American flag in his hands. “I am a veteran, and I have seen other veterans out here representing and reclaiming our flag.
The other side does not own the flag, and they do not get to decide what it means. This means a lot to me. We want to stand for true freedom, not for a select few and oligarchs.”
“If we do not stand up to him, there will be nothing left.”
The Oak Park protest comes months after another large anti-Trump protest in the village’s downtown on April 5, but Saturday’s demonstration drew a significantly larger crowd, with protestors marching down Lake Street and gathering in Scoville Park while chanting, waving flags, and holding satirical signs.
“The sheer number of people who showed up, having so many of these around the Chicago area, especially with the main one in Downtown Chicago, I really did not expect such a large gathering as was here today,” said Kat, a two-year Oak Park resident who asked not to have their last name printed. “I was absolutely blown away by how much of the community came out.”
Oak Park is one of the most liberal communities in the United States, with more than 90% of Oak Parkers voting for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2016 presidential election.
Traffic on Lake Street slowed to a crawl as cars honked their horns in support, with a large Oak Park police presence on hand to monitor the march. The protestors cheered as an Oak Park Fire Engine rolled down the street, blowing its horn.
The weekend’s peaceful protests follow tense scenes in Los Angeles, where Trump ordered more than 2,000 National Guard troops and more than 700 US Marines to intervene in immigration protests opposing the administration’s efforts to increase deportations.
According to the Associated Press, this was the first time in decades that the national guard had been deployed in a state without the request of the governor.
Susan Meier of River Forest said she is been involved in immigrant resettlement for over 50 years and currently works for Friendship Community Place, a church on Chicago’s Northwest Side.
She stated that she recently worked with immigrants in Chicago, mostly women with multiple children, who were forced to wear ankle monitors by immigration officers under false pretenses.
“It is frightening to hear their stories and to understand that we have government that is not taking care of the least among us, in fact we have a government and a president who seems to be focused on hurting the most vulnerable among us,” Meier told the audience.
Oak Park, along with neighboring Chicago and Berwyn, was recently added to a federal list of immigration “sanctuary cities” that the Trump administration claimed were actively violating immigration law.
The list was removed from the Department of Homeland Security’s website a few days later, but it came after federal agencies warned that cities like Oak Park that have policies against cooperating with civil immigration enforcement investigations would lose access to infrastructure support and other forms of federal funding.
Vicki Scaman, village president, officially responded to the village’s inclusion on the list at the village board meeting on June 3.
“I remain in constant contact with the governor’s office and I am grateful for their support, our designated contact with the governor’s office was the first person to call me Friday morning after the Thursday release of a Presidential press release wrongly and irresponsibly calling out sanctuary city politicians,” according to her.
“Our ultimate goal is to make Oak Park a stronger, more inclusive community that can best serve and protect its residents. It is our engaged community, all of you, that shapes us as leaders and holds us accountable to never rest. “I will never rest.”
