On the morning of November 7, 2011, several hundred senior citizens and their advocates joined forces with Occupy Chicago and rallied to protest cuts to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare at the site of the Federal Plaza in downtown Chicago.
More than 40 people, including 15 elderly members of the Jane Addams Senior Caucus, were detained and cited by police after locking arms and stopping traffic at the intersection of Jackson and Clark, one of the cities busiest.
These are not your grandmother’s seniors. Many of these older demonstrators honed their activist skills in the civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam war protests.
The generation known for civil disobedience has aged into our senior population. But far from retiring in silence, these older Americans still take to the streets to call for social and economic justice.
Organizations like the Jane Addams Senior Caucus in Chicago and the national Alliance for Retired Americans enable seniors to come together and exercise their right to peaceful protest. Together, they still have the power to help guide their quality of life and contribute to the civic discourse.
To help you research your current entitled Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security benefits, Caregiverlist.com provides information on Services by State.
