Also held in the suburbs and across the country, the demonstrations are taking aim at the administration’s recent actions, including layoffs of federal workers, cuts in funding for social services and removal of protections for transgender people.
Alice Brandon has been crying a lot lately.
The Logan Square resident was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer at 39, and told she had a 20% chance of surviving. That was until a federally funded research program led to the creation of a drug that increased her chances by more than four times.
As she watches federal funding for medical research, cancer drugs like the one that saved her life included, Brandon, now in her 50s, can’t help but be distraught.
She was among the thousands who took to Daley Plaza Saturday, later marching down LaSalle Street and then up to State Street, at a “Hands Off” protest organized by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Indivisible Chicago, Equality Illinois, the Chicago Federation of Labor and others. Organizers said more than 30,000 people marched Saturday to rally against Trump and billionaire CEO Elon Musk.
