Thousands line Ogden Avenue to protest Trump administration

Maureen and Carroll Heatherly stood along a stretch of Ogden Avenue in Lisle Sunday where they joined thousands of others to protest the Trump administration as part of the Hands Across Chicagoland demonstration.

Maureen Heatherly displayed a sign that supported the pro-choice movement while her husband held a placard calling for an end to the war in Ukraine.

The couple voiced concerns about the future of health care and disability rights as well as what they believe are illegal and authoritarian actions taken by the Trump administration.

“We love our country and we want to protect it for our six grandkids,” Maureen Heatherly said.

“We want to leave some type of life left for our grandkids. [Trump] is taking everything away from the working class,” Carroll Heatherly said.

About 18,000 people participated in the protest, which ran along a 30-mile stretch of Ogden Avenue from Aurora to Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood.

“We really have to fight Trump’s corruption and behavior at so many different levels,” said U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, one of several elected officials who joined protesters in Lisle.

“The Republicans are getting caught in their lies,” Foster said. “They have told one wing of their party we are going to fix it this way and another wing that way. One of the things you should learn in life and not just in politics [is] don’t say one thing to one set of people and a different thing to another set of people. Most people’s mothers tell them that. Apparently, Speaker [Mike] Johnson and Donald Trump have not learned that lesson and they are about to get caught on that.”

Foster was joined by DuPage County Board Chair Deb Conroy, state senators Karina Villa and Laura Ellman and state representatives Robin Kelly, Barbara Hernandez and Terra Costa-Howard.

Twyla Becker traveled an hour from her home in Grayslake to stand on Ogden Avenue in Naperville wearing black and holding a sign about due process.

“I am very concerned about the mass deportations of people who are not doing anything wrong,” Becker said.

Mary Beth Bleifuss, a Naperville resident and retired teacher, has attended about a half dozen protests against the Trump administration.

She attended Sunday’s protest for many reasons, but of utmost importance is accountability, she said.

“I taught social studies for years,” Bleifuss said. “There is a system of checks and balances, and there are three branches of government. We need to hold each other accountable.”

Bleifuss also expressed concern about the future of education and libraries.

Standing near Beilfuss, Philip Buchanan, a member of the Naperville Township Democrats, said he is concerned about the “rule of law, the Constitution, Donald Trump and Elon Musk.”

Laura Miller Hill and her husband, Greg, of St. Charles, got involved in protests during Trump’s first term.

“We always have been active, voted and supported organizations that help others,” Laura Hill said. “Now we are back to fighting for every little thing.”

“We are very upset about what the Trump administration is doing, specifically the cuts for people in need of Medicare, stealing people off the street and sending them off to other countries. All of it is terrible,” she said.

Greg Hill said he is concerned about “reductions in services, and the elimination of staff across multiple [government] departments means people are not getting the services that they are entitled to.”

Dit Chan of Glendale Heights said he began protesting when was Trump was elected in 2016. He said he is sickened by the current administration and is concerned that more people are beginning to mistrust the government.

“I have lost every iota of trust in the government, and this is not the way it should be,” Chan said. “I am also concerned with the environment. As a Christian, God gave us stewardship over the planet.”

Chan said he came to Sunday’s event because it sounded like it was “history making.”

“Donald Trump has made it clear. He has no respect for the rule of law, the Constitution or the people he once swore to serve,” said Patrick Watson, a leader of Indivisible Illinois, an advocacy group that co-sponsored the event.

“As he plots authoritarian power grabs, we are rising—peacefully and powerfully—to show that democracy will not be dismantled without a fight," Watson said.

Trump supporters participated in a counter protest as cars and trucks that donned American flags and Trump-themed paraphernalia drove along Odgen Avenue.

Dan Davies, owner of EarthWerks Land Improvement and Develpment Corp. in Lisle, held a patriot’s party in front of his Ogden Avenue business.

“I heard about the Hands Across Chicagoland protest and looked at their mission statement and didn’t agree with it,” Davies said. “I thought maybe we should have a place for another voice to be seen and heard so they know there is not just one side in DuPage County.”

“We support Donald Trump, and we want to let him do the job he said he was going to do,” he said.