Residents of Shorewood senior complex join anti-Trump protest day

Protesters in wheelchairs in Shorewood provided a variation to the hundreds of anti-Trump administration demonstrations being held across the country Saturday.

More than 70 people, including friends and family, came out for the protest held outside The Timbers of Shorewood, a senior living complex along River Road.

“It’s not themselves they’re concerned about,” Mike Hall said. “It’s their grandkids and their kids.”

Hall, a retired high school social studies teacher, said he was demonstrating out of concern for the future of the U.S. Constitution.

“They’re not giving people due process,” Hall said, adding that he believes the Trump administration’s handling of deportation is eroding constitutional protections that will have an impact on his grandchildren.

The protests across the country – called No Kings Day rallies – were happening the same day as a military parade in Washington, D.C., that Trump called for to recognize the 250th year of the U.S. armed forces. June 14 also is celebrated as Flag Day across the country.

A large crowed gathered in Joliet.

Despite their age, protesters interviewed at the scene in Shorewood voiced concerns on matters other than the future of Social Security and Medicare – issues raised by President Donald Trump opponents because of potential budget cut effects on older adults.

The deportation of immigrants was mentioned repeatedly by protesters when asked why they participated.

“I have an undocumented friend in Texas,” Barbara McIntosh said. “I told her what we were going to do, and she said, ‘Thank you.’”

McIntosh, who is in her 80s, said she believed speaking out against the Trump administration could make her a target.

“They can come get me,” she said. “I’ve lived this long.”

Another woman in her 90s would not give her name, saying that she was concerned it could make her family a target by supporters of the Trump administration.

“I wouldn’t care, but I worry about my family,” she said.

Her comment reflected a climate of fear cited by some protesters as their reason for participating Saturday.

“I’m objecting to the way the Constitution is being stomped on,” said Jeanne Engstrom, one of the organizers of the protest. “I’m upset abut deportation without people getting their day in court.”

Engstrom acknowledged that not everyone in The Timbers of Shorewood shares the protesters’ views of the Trump administration.

“There are definitely Trump supporters who think everything is great,” she said. “And there are those of us who said, ‘This is not how we grew up.’”

A sense that the times may be changing motivated some of the protesters.

But Dorothy Brumbaugh, one of the organizers for the protest, said she has been involved in demonstrations since a 1960s protest in downtown Chicago over civil rights issues.

Brumbaugh said recent actions by the Trump administration have hit home because of the potential elimination of Head Start programs and the Joliet Job Corps.

“I was a Head Start teacher for 13 years,” she said. ”As for closing Job Corps, my granddaughter is a student who had her program affected by that."