“I’m so tired.”
Katherine Herrman said it without hesitation.
“My daughter is 12. She borrows my old clothes from the ’90s. She listens to my music from the ’90s,” she said. “I could have saved my ‘No Blood for Oil’ signs from the ’90s. I’m so sick of this.”
She stood along Harwood Avenue Saturday afternoon, March 28, outside the Homewood Veterans Memorial, where a crowd in the hundreds gathered for a protest rally organized by Action for a Better Tomorrow.
By 1:12 p.m., people were already lined along the sidewalk and spilling across the lawn at at the Veterans Memorial. More kept arriving, stepping into place with signs in hand. Some read “No Kings.” Others read “Protect Our Democracy” and “Compassion Not Cruelty.”
Mary Ellen Brabec noticed it right away.
As the crowd filled in early, Brabec said she was surprised by the turnout.
“This is outstanding to see already,” she said.
She came to speak about what she sees from her work at a food pantry.
Al Reed holds a flag reading “NO KINGS IN AMERICA” during the rally in Homewood, where hundreds gathered along Harwood Avenue. (Nuha Abdessalam/H-F Chronicle)
“People are too poor to be able to survive,” Brabec said. “There’s people who are hungry, and they can’t afford to have this war going on, and to not be able to have their needs being met at home.”
“I just hope that people will be aware of the infringement on our democracy and the humane treatment of other people across the world,” she said. “We’re alienating people. We’re harming people. It’s not the message that we as Americans want to carry.”
The rally ran from 1 to 3 p.m. and drew families, neighbors and organizers from across the South Suburbs. It was part of a protest movement involving thousands of events nationwide.
Josef Stepp said the issues are no longer distant.
“It’s not really so abstract anymore,” he said.
He said he hears it every day in his work at a public aid office.
“Nobody’s hiring,” Stepp said. “Everybody’s looking for jobs, nobody’s hiring. Everybody comes to me and says, ‘I’m looking for a job. I’ve applied for 50 jobs this week. Nobody’s hiring.’”
He pointed to shrinking SNAP benefits and tighter Medicaid requirements.
“We’ve had massive drops for our benefits for asylees,” he said. “That went from 12 months to four months. So we’re seeing these massive drops, and then we’re the ones that have to go explain that to people.”
Herrman said she keeps coming back because of what the crowd represents.
“It’s just people knowing that they’re not alone,” she said. “That it’s not crazy to think that what’s happening is wrong. We see it’s wrong, and we’re willing to speak up.”
Donna Fitzpatrick said she came thinking about her family.
“I have a daughter and a granddaughter, and I want them to be able to manage their own bodies and do what they want with it, and to vote, and to be a part of the democracy,” she said.
She said she did not expect such a huge turnout.
“I didn’t know what the turnout was going to be,” Fitzpatrick said. “Small area and everything. It’s wonderful. I am so proud of everybody.”
Vera Barber stood with her family, taking in the size of the crowd.
“This provided hope for me today,” she said.
Nearby, her son Robert Baggot stood with his wife.
“We are not Trump fans,” he said, nodding toward the people around him. “Just all these incredible people.”
Barber added: “This is a great crowd for a local. I was blown away. We had trouble finding parking.”
Chants moved through the crowd.
“Show me what democracy looks like!”
“This is what democracy looks like!”
Drivers passing along Harwood honked as they went by.
Jelena Radovic Fanta, with Neighbors Network Chicago Land, described why her group formed.
“We witnessed how families were being affected by the raids, by the kidnappings, by the deportation,” she said, referring to federal immigration enforcement in the Chicago area. “It resulted in loss of income, and just the generalized fear of leaving the house, of being able to go to the grocery store, to doctors’ appointments. Kids stopped going to school.”
She described a network trying to connect resources with families who are afraid to ask for help.
“How do we bridge the gap?” she said.
Josef Stepp said those concerns are showing up more and more in everyday life.
“It feels like a rug being pulled out,” he said. “Like a wool over the eyes of the American people.”
Cheryl Gansauer stayed until the end.
“Let’s see what this produces,” she said. “You know. Let’s see.”
ABT co-founder Jennifer Peterson served as announcer, introducing musicians Dolph Chaney and Matt Bailey and five speakers.
In addition to Fanta, speakers included and Lorena Varela representing Comunidad en Accion de Illinois; Jim Oord, pastoral care director at Flossmoor Community Church; Kathy Cortez of the League of Women Voters of Illinois; and Metropolitan Water Reclamation Commissioner and Matteson Village Clerk Yumeka Brown.
