No Kings Protest, Chicago, 2025-10-18

We protested Trump and his fascist federal government actions again (previously). And by “We” I mean “We the people”: 300,000 of my fellow Chicago citizens and 2,700 other cities across the United States. It was the largest protest in the history of this country.

There were more notable speakers at this second “No Kings” protest in Chicago: Mayor Brandon Johnson gave a rousing speech, followed by Governor Pritzker. Dick Durbin was apparently on the stage but didn’t address the crowd.

The massive audience was larger than expected, and it took much longer than expected to be able to move that many people safely. Again, the entire downtown Loop was blocked by protesting people, no cars moving on the streets. And the energy was the same throughout: nonviolent speech, calls for ICE to leave, calls to stop the authoritarian acts, pride in Chicago, pride in America. We saw no agitators, met no resistance.

What struck me this time, was the date. We’re not even a year into this regime and the only end in sight is 3 years down the road. We will have to keep speaking out like this for years to regain the peace and prosperity we had before.