Protestors in black holding signs will take to the sidewalks along Ogden Avenue this weekend to protest the actions of the Trump administration that the vast majority of political scientists say are bringing the United States closer to authoritarianism, according to NPR.
The Hands Across Chicagoland protest will take place Sunday, May 18, from noon to 2 p.m. While not forming a literal human chain linked arm-to-arm, the protestors will line up on sidewalks stretching 30 miles from Aurora to Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood.
Reid McCollum, chair of the DuPage County Democratic Party and the organizer of the event, said the line will be unbroken, with a protestor every five to 20 feet depending on turnout, except for where there are no sidewalks where protestors can gather. The largest gap will start just before Kingery Highway in Clarendon Hills and end at North Gilbert Avenue in LaGrange Park.
McCollum pointed toward President Donald Trump’s mass deportations without due process as one action he wanted to speak out against with the protest. He said the idea started based on protests his group and others have done at Tesla dealerships in Illinois against CEO Elon Musk, who runs the administration’s Department of Governmental Efficiency.
“Somebody had an idea,” said McCollum. “One of the Democratic women leaders out here, she was like, ‘Why don’t we do a chain from the one in Downers Grove all the way out to the one in Lisle or Naperville. It’s seven miles.’ I was like, that is ambitious,” McCollum said. “That was right when [Kilmar] Abrego Garcia, they wouldn’t try to get him back and were sending people to foreign prisons. I don’t know [if] doing something between Teslas is really where a lot of people are at right now. … We need to ramp it up.”
Dave Terrazino, who grew up in Riverside and has lived in Brookfield for 20 years, said he plans to be a link in the human chain. He told the Landmark Friday he had attended protests at the Tesla dealership in Westmont.
He said he heard about both protests through Indivisible West Suburban Chicago, a progressive advocacy group that spans Brookfield, Western Springs, LaGrange and LaGrange Park.
“It’s important for everyone to have a voice — one way or the other — to protest, to resist what’s happening at a federal level,” he said. “Since Trump has been elected, the last hundred days or so, we’ve really seen three Cs: chaos, corruption, incompetence.”
Jon Platt is another Brookfield resident who plans to attend the protest.
“I think it’s very critical that we all see ourselves as a whole rather than let anybody try to separate us or try to scapegoat one single group of people living here in America. I think Hands Across Chicagoland is one more step in terms of stating a togetherness,” he said.
Terrazino, who is retired, said he has felt the impacts of Trump’s economic policies.
“I took a major hit on the savings that was a lifetime accumulation, and I’ve seen that drop by somewhere between 10 and 15%. Just poof, gone,” he said. “Everything seems to be going OK with [social security payouts] because I was already in the system for a couple of years now. That seems to be OK, but yes, I’m absolutely worried that they’re going to try and privatize this, and God only know what will happen when and if that happens.”
He said he hoped other residents would make signs, wear black and join the protest.
“If people are silent about this and don’t get involved in some level and don’t resist in any way they can, then they’re missing out on what this country is about,” Terrazino said. “There’s got to be something I can do, and I fully encourage my fellow citizens to get involved and have their voice heard.”
McCollum said he estimated about 10,000 people will attend the protest, though the actual attendance could be higher or lower.
“The biggest [goal] is to not be silent and to not have our silence normalized on the slide to authoritarianism that we’re experiencing. I think the more people see protests happening, the more they are likely to join them,” he said. “We are hovering on the brink of needing 3.5% of the population out in the streets to stop the authoritarian takeover because Trump’s not going to stop until there’s public pressure through peaceful, civil people in the streets.”
McCollum referenced the so-called 3.5% rule: Political scientists have found peaceful movements that mobilize at least that percentage of the population have “never failed to bring about change,” according to the BBC.
