I didn’t have a sign or a megaphone or a call-and-response chant to contribute to last Saturday’s “I Love America with No Kings” march in Oak Park. I had a notebook, though, and a pen and decided to make myself useful.
For those who were there and couldn’t commit it all to memory, and for those who couldn’t make it this time but hopefully next time, here are as many of our statements as I could scribble down, a small smattering of the messages boldly and freely expressed during our long walk for freedom from tyranny — which was in itself, the boldest of statements. So with all due respect to what passes for a president:
“The Enemy is Within” – Trump … “The Enemy is Within the White House” – We the People
“We Love Our Country – We’re Ashamed of Donald Trump”
“We were just following orders” (Nuremberg, 1945; ICE, 2025)
“I Need To Tell My Grandchildren I Did Not Remain Silent”
“Democracy Doesn’t Fear Protest, Dictators Do”
“The Power of the People is Far Greater Than the People in Power” – Rally speaker Rev. Emily Gage
“When Cruelty Becomes Normal, Compassion Looks Radical”
“This is the Cover of the Epstein Files” (photo of younger Trump lying on a bed in a white bathrobe)
“Imagine Hating Immigrants More Than Pedophiles”
“We Love America and Have the Right to Protest”
“Don’t Make Me Repeat Myself” – History
“The Only Monarch We Need” (a butterfly)
“There is No Antifa, Only Anti-Fascism”
“Apathy Feeds Fascists”
“Hey Trump, Karma’s Gonna Track U Down, Step by Step, Town to Town”
“I Want You … To Resist!” (Uncle Sam, pointing)
“History Does Not Forgive Silence – Resist While You Still Can”
“No Crown for a Clown”
“Elect a Clown, Expect a Circus”
“We the People Will Never Forget the Cowards in Congress Who Kept Quiet”
“This is What Democracy Looks Like” (driver shouting from a passing car, hand on horn)
“Democracy’s Our Thing, We Don’t Need No King” (young guy chanting into a megaphone)
“This Sh*t Is Your Fault, John Roberts” (photo of the Supreme Court chief justice)
“With Fear For Our Democracy, I Dissent” – Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor
“What Part of This is Great?”
“Love, Not Hate, Makes America Great”
“ICE Always Melts and Every Winter Ends”
“The King Has No Clothes” (a long red tie covers Trump’s privates)
“Forgot What Polio Is? Thank Vaccine Research”
“IKEA Has Better Cabinets”
“Masked Thugs, Off Our Streets!”
“The World Is Laughing At Us”
“No Faux-King Way!”
“No One Is Illegal on Stolen Land”
“We the People Are Immigrants”
“Everyone is Welcome Here, Except ICE”
“Feel Like a Man When You Push Us Down? Feel Better As We Fall to the Ground?”
“The Constitution Matters! Continue the Fight”
“We’ve Only Just Begun”
“Democracy Needs Your Courage”
“Democracy Dies While Trump Lies”
“MAGA, Morons Are Governing America”
“GOP, Prosecute Gross Old Pedophiles”
“I Love America, It’s Wannabe Dictators I Can’t Stand”
“Not a King But a Crook” (sign taped to a passing car)
“Tell ICE, Hands Off Children” (sign held by a child)
“De-ICE Chicago”
“What You Do to the Least of These, You Do to Jesus”
“We Will Not Bow Down to Cruelty, Corruption, Chaos”
“This is Not a Left-Right Movement, It’s a Right-Wrong Movement”
“Silence = Complicity”
“If Kamala Were President, We’d Be At Brunch”
“I Like ICE in My Coffee, Not in My Streets”
“The Beauty of the World Lies in the Diversity of its People”
“My Dad Did Not Fight for This”
A patriot among patriots carries an enormous Marine Flag, no words needed, message comes through loud and clear.