As the budget impasse in Springfield rages on, about 50 health care providers and their supporters urged a wealthy donor for Gov. Bruce Rauner to "pay his fair share" in state taxes during a Thursday morning protest.
More than 50 faith leaders and Chicago activists sang and prayed for a South Side adult trauma center at a rally late Thursday afternoon at the University of Chicago medical campus. Progress Illinois was there for the demonstration.
A group of University of Chicago alumni want to put a dent in the school’s wallet by withholding donations from their alma mater as a way to pressure the Hyde Park institution to open a trauma center on the city’s South Side.
Jessicia Morris (pictured right) said if she hadn’t been able to go to Roseland
Community Hospital for medical treatment when she was shot in 2010, she
probably would have lost her leg — or worse.
“Doctors said I
made it to the hospital just in time,” said the 21 year–old former gang
member who was shot in the knee at the age of 17. “My knee-cap was
shattered and I lost a lot of blood. They said I was about to lose my
leg, or I wouldn’t have been able to walk again.”
Morris
was born and raised in Chicago’s often embattled Far South Side
neighborhood of Roseland, and said she joined the Black Disciples gang at the
age of 13.
“All we see out here is violence,” she said. “I didn’t know I could do anything else.”
Young leaders on the South Side are once again pushing for emergency care. A group by the name Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY) is calling on the University of Chicago’s Medical Center to operate a trauma center.
The latest movement is a “Tent City” protest situated in front of the medical center, just one year after one of the group's members died from a gunshot wound.
Jessicia Morris (pictured right) said if she hadn’t been able to go to 
Young leaders on the South Side are once again pushing for emergency care. A group by the name Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY) is calling on the University of Chicago’s Medical Center to operate a trauma center.