26th Street Priest Invites NATO Protesters To Camp On Church Lawn

By Chris Bentley in News on May 4, 2012 6:00PM

Aaron Hughes of Iraq Veterans Against the War addressed the crowd gathered at Trinity Episcopal Church Thursday.

The specter of NATO-related chaos has been impossible to ignore since the summit was first announced more than a year ago. At one South Loop church Thursday, residents and activists bristled at the prospect of living in the summit’s shadow.

Trinity Episcopal Church, 125 E. 26th St., has invited protesters traveling from outside Chicago to camp on their lawn, just blocks from McCormick Place. Grassroutes Caravan, a cyclist group from Wisconsin, has already taken up the church’s offer.

“It’s very rare indeed you see a church practicing what they preach,” said Eric Fernandez, a member of National Nurses United who addressed the few dozen gathered Thursday in the evening heat. Fernandez praised the Rev. Errol Narain for promoting social justice.

But several decried what they saw as an added disruption.

“This is not appropriate for this community. End of discussion,” said one woman before storming out.

Many countered that nail-biting media coverage and pumped-up police were to blame for the anxiety, not protesters. “They’re creating this false sense of alarm,” said Shahid Buttar of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, “because they have a financial interest in it. Just like NATO has an interest in promoting conflict.”

Copies of protest organizer Andy Thayer’s Tribune op-ed circulated among the crowd. Thayer himself spoke briefly and echoed the crowd consensus in support of NATO protests. But no one denied that the weekend of May 18 would be a strain on the community.

“It will be about 10 times worse than the Bud Billiken Parade,” said the Rev. Karen King, comparing the expected street closures and police presence to the area’s annual African American parade. Another audience member likened the commotion to 50 or 60 times that of a visit by President Barack Obama.