Despite Everything, Chicago Is Standing Up to ICE
For the vast majority of my life, I couldn’t imagine that I would one day see roving bands of anonymous masked terrorists stomp across the city I love and live in, randomly kidnapping people because they have brown skin and trafficking them off to who knows where, and depriving them of legal counsel and leaving their shocked and grieving children without any knowledge about their loved ones, and casually tossing tear gas canisters at protesters, innocent bystanders, clergy and even local police officers and reporters, ramming their unmarked vehicles into other people’s cars, erecting a heavy fence across a public street that prevents first responders from reaching citizens in trouble, arresting local politicians who ask to see their nonexistent search warrants, storming and arresting everyone inside an apartment building – even badly wounding or killing innocent people and then lying about their crimes and attempting to paint their victims as rabid and heavily armed terrorists.
We have always believed that this sort of thing only happens in faraway developing countries in the middle of civil wars or living under the thumb of brutal dictators who are eventually jailed for committing crimes against humanity. These are things that could never happen in America, the beacon of hope that helped to end fascism in Europe and imperialism in Asia. My father, a cargo pilot during WWII, was a proud member of this antifascist movement, along with 16 million other service men and servicewomen. Our country has never been perfect or even equitable, but most of us have been steadily working to meet the decree that all people are created equal and striving to become the place where FDR’s Four Freedoms – Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear – could one day be the norm in the country that bills itself as the World’s Greatest Democracy.
Instead, we have Donald Trump’s personal private militia, financed by our taxpayer dollars, ravaging Los Angeles, Washington DC, Portland and Chicago for the sole purpose of feeding his malignant desire for revenge against those who he believes have wronged him.
So here we are: millions of people suddenly subject to the whims of anonymous bullies who believe they are completely above the law and who have been directed by their rage-filled master to use whatever cruel tactics they can muster to break the will of the people.
But we are not breaking. The people of Chicago are standing strong, connecting with each other, building community, challenging and documenting every wrong, learning from and teaching one another, and peacefully creating a unified resistance that only continues to grow, even as the invading army becomes larger and more savage and lawless.
We come from all walks of life, all races and income levels. We represent the powerful melting pot that has made America’s cities so rich, diverse, complex, thriving and free. We are the polar opposite of the America that Trump and his Project 2025 cronies are trying to impose – a world where everyone falls in lockstep with the whims of a tyrannical, abusive leader, a world where success is only based on your religion, your gender, the color of your skin, the place of your birth and your willingness to submit to authority. A world where all the wealth and power is held in the hands of a greedy few and the rest of us are forced to fight each other over whatever tiny crumbs trickle down to the masses.
Chicago has unwillingly become the test market for the Trump brand of authoritarianism. If they can bend Chicago’s people to their will, cities and towns across the country will soon face the same level of senseless brutality that we are facing now.
But whatever they throw at us, we will continue to stand up and speak out. We will continue to find our strength, our creativity, our willingness to ignore our petty differences and unify our voices and muscles to force the authoritarians to abandon their hateful plans in the face of an overwhelming mass of Americans yearning to stay free.
This isn’t just about Chicago – or Portland or LA or DC. This is, and this needs to be, about all of us all across the country gathering our courage, our will and our voices to stand up to the real enemy within – the dark forces of tyranny that threaten our very existence.
This coming Saturday, October 18th, is everyone’s chance to raise their voices against the tyranny of the few who are threatening to destroy our democracy and silence all of us who are working for freedom and justice. There will be thousands of No Kings rallies all over the country and the world including a giant one in Grant Park in downtown Chicago. The last No Kings rallies drew more than five million people. These can be and must be even larger and more unifying.
We are the only ones we can count on to destroy tyranny and restore democracy and human rights. But we are many. We are strong. We are enough.
We have always believed that this sort of thing only happens in faraway developing countries in the middle of civil wars or living under the thumb of brutal dictators who are eventually jailed for committing crimes against humanity. These are things that could never happen in America, the beacon of hope that helped to end fascism in Europe and imperialism in Asia. My father, a cargo pilot during WWII, was a proud member of this antifascist movement, along with 16 million other service men and servicewomen. Our country has never been perfect or even equitable, but most of us have been steadily working to meet the decree that all people are created equal and striving to become the place where FDR’s Four Freedoms – Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear – could one day be the norm in the country that bills itself as the World’s Greatest Democracy.
Instead, we have Donald Trump’s personal private militia, financed by our taxpayer dollars, ravaging Los Angeles, Washington DC, Portland and Chicago for the sole purpose of feeding his malignant desire for revenge against those who he believes have wronged him.
So here we are: millions of people suddenly subject to the whims of anonymous bullies who believe they are completely above the law and who have been directed by their rage-filled master to use whatever cruel tactics they can muster to break the will of the people.
But we are not breaking. The people of Chicago are standing strong, connecting with each other, building community, challenging and documenting every wrong, learning from and teaching one another, and peacefully creating a unified resistance that only continues to grow, even as the invading army becomes larger and more savage and lawless.
We come from all walks of life, all races and income levels. We represent the powerful melting pot that has made America’s cities so rich, diverse, complex, thriving and free. We are the polar opposite of the America that Trump and his Project 2025 cronies are trying to impose – a world where everyone falls in lockstep with the whims of a tyrannical, abusive leader, a world where success is only based on your religion, your gender, the color of your skin, the place of your birth and your willingness to submit to authority. A world where all the wealth and power is held in the hands of a greedy few and the rest of us are forced to fight each other over whatever tiny crumbs trickle down to the masses.
Chicago has unwillingly become the test market for the Trump brand of authoritarianism. If they can bend Chicago’s people to their will, cities and towns across the country will soon face the same level of senseless brutality that we are facing now.
But whatever they throw at us, we will continue to stand up and speak out. We will continue to find our strength, our creativity, our willingness to ignore our petty differences and unify our voices and muscles to force the authoritarians to abandon their hateful plans in the face of an overwhelming mass of Americans yearning to stay free.
This isn’t just about Chicago – or Portland or LA or DC. This is, and this needs to be, about all of us all across the country gathering our courage, our will and our voices to stand up to the real enemy within – the dark forces of tyranny that threaten our very existence.
This coming Saturday, October 18th, is everyone’s chance to raise their voices against the tyranny of the few who are threatening to destroy our democracy and silence all of us who are working for freedom and justice. There will be thousands of No Kings rallies all over the country and the world including a giant one in Grant Park in downtown Chicago. The last No Kings rallies drew more than five million people. These can be and must be even larger and more unifying.
We are the only ones we can count on to destroy tyranny and restore democracy and human rights. But we are many. We are strong. We are enough.