Community Corner
#WomenForSyria Rally Planned in Frankfort
Southwest Suburban Activists also raise money for Loom Chicago by writing to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.
FRANKFORT, IL - The Southwest Suburban Activists will rally in downtown Frankfort on Thursday to demand that the United States welcome more Syrian refugees.
The activists formed a group just last month following a rally at Breidert Green Park on International Women’s Day and have focused on the Syrian refugee crisis as their next cause.
“We mourn for and with the people of Syria,” the group wrote in a statement on a Facebook event page promoting Thursday’s rally. “We are outraged that the president and his cabinet are banning the very refugees that are escaping the same terrorism we are claiming to fight.”
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The group plans to meet at Breidert Green again from 6:30-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 13 for a #WomenforSyria “day of action.”
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Specifically, the group demands the United States to “let in at least 75,000 refugees.”
“We demand that we be a sanctuary and safe haven for Syrian refugees,” the group statement read. “This will help alleviate some of the sufferings of the children and their families. There is no easy solution – but providing Syrians with a life of safety and security is the least we can do.”
Postcards to Paul Ryan
Emily Biegel, a founding leader of the group who led the March 8 Women’s Day march through downtown Frankfort, said like-minded individuals across the nation took part in #TheTaxingofRyan protest Sunday night. Participants would write a postcard to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan indicating their displeasure of how he has “enabled the unmitigated catastrophe that is a Donald J. Trump's presidency” and for each postcard, match a donation to organizations such as the ACLU or Planned Parenthood.
Biegel said the Southwest Suburban Activists met at Elwood Alehouse and through 657 postcards ended up raising $304 for Loom Chicago, a “community of refugee women living in Chicago who weave together their creativity and cultural traditions to make and sell beautiful handmade products” according to its website.
“It was a great event and a terrific way to show the community that we are continuing to persist and resist,” Biegel said.
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