Thank you for the Wednesday Journal coverage in advance of our Hands Off! Rally, Saturday, April 5. The turnout was incredible! It was a marching, roaring, chanting, and honking success.
The Oak Park-area communities were all represented: young and old came with signs demonstrating their outrage at the current administration’s policies. The crowd was respectful of property and each other. There were heartwarming experiences of a man who told me, that when he saw the enthusiastic crowd, “I was the happiest I have been in months”; the well-dressed woman with white hair who declared that this was her first protest; and the heart-wrenching sight of a young girl with her tiny sign written on brown cardboard stating, “Hands Off Our Future.”
Special thanks to Congregations Networking for Social Justice who were a co-sponsor. Many thanks to the Oak Park Police Department who were present and appropriately keeping people safely on the sidewalks. Thanks to the Park District of Oak Park for our permit. Thanks to our Oak Park Public Library which did not freak out with the community gathered on their front lawn.
And thanks to our local UPS store for rushing our order for the gorgeous vinyl banners, which we can reuse. And overwhelming gratitude to everyone who turned out to express that WE, the People say HANDS OFF our rights, our programs, and public services!
Cynthia Breunlin
Congregations Networking for Social Justice