Dale and I went to an April 5 Hands Off protest! Neither one of us had ever been to a protest before, although once back in the 80s, we joined a small group of women and drove our Fiat 124 Spider convertible through the streets of Chambersburg, Pa. shouting, “Hey, Hey, What Do You Say? Ratify the ERA!”
A lot of good that did.
I signed us up, but I didn’t really want to go. I was looking for an excuse to get out of it, but Dale persisted. He gets points for leading the way, but I clearly outperformed him on signage. We both feel like we could do better next time.
The signs were amazing, and some were downright hilarious. Much to my regret, I didn’t get any good pictures, but I think my favorite was a picture of Trump and the words, Does this ass make my sign look big?
There were two nearby events. One required going into downtown Sacramento. We are complete novices on the downtown area, so we went with the one in Roseville, another suburb. The protest was outside a big mall, so parking was a breeze. It’s about a 30-minute drive from our house.
Roseville is fairly conservative by California standards, but the streets were packed. My guess is several thousand were there. It was incredible. Lots and lots of people drove by waving, thumbs up and honking in support. A few flipped us off, but that’s OK. I’ve flipped off plenty of anti-abortion protesters in my day.
We stayed almost two hours. They warned us there would be no bathrooms other than in the mall, so without doing a full Cory Booker, we decided to leave when we had to pee.
Dale and I both had tears in our eyes much of the time. Just to know that so many of our neighbors understand the threats we face was so gratifying. There were also a lot of signs with variations on Hate Doesn’t Make America Great or Make America Nice Again.
After a hard day of protest, we came home and Dale grilled up some bison burgers, and we went to bed early.
We will do this as many times as we have to. If for some reason you can’t quite see yourself in the streets, depending on the location, you might be able to drive by the protest site and honk in support. Such a simple act, but we could feel the energy.
The people are rising!
Democracy at work!
Voicing your opinion is important.
Good for you and Dale!!!
Indeed!
Good for you guys. I was concerned about bathroom access. Roseville is a good idea. As an aside, I had a Fiat 124 Spyder. Bought it in the late 70’s new. It taught me that if a car has a bad reputation, it is probably well deserved. Cooking system was a joke. I made it to 75k miles, with a cracked block and two blown head gaskets along the way. Fix it again tomorrow. Or Tony. Whichever you prefer. I did love driving it.
We loved driving that car, but we also had a boat load of problems, including a blown head gasket. I forget what all else went wrong, but it always seemed to happen when I was driving! Dale bought it new in Germany around 1975. We brought it back to the states. Drove it from Alabama to California to Maine to Pennsylvania and then shipped it back to Germany for another tour. It died within just a few miles from where he bought it.
Is it in the junkyard at Ramstein or Zweibruecken? LOL!
Bill V.
Ha! Ramstein, I think.
Well done. I’m cheering you on from the sidelines (Canada!). Someone has to try and stop this madness.
Derek in Ottawa
Thank you. And to our Canadian friends, on behalf of America, we’re sorry.
I arrived I Hilton Head Island yesterday and to my amazement there were hundreds of protesters looking like they stopped at Vineyard Vines store for some gear in advance of the event.
I haven’t felt this great in months. The protesters cheered when they noticed my Ontario plates. What a day!
It is uplifting, isn’t it? I did some time in South Carolina, and a big turnout in Hilton Head speaks volumes. And I’m so happy you got cheered!
Yay you and Dale! I went to my first protest ever yesterday too, here in Prescott AZ. There were a lot of people and fantastic signs. It truly has given me hope, seeing all the protests from around the country. All while that fool is avoiding meeting the service member’s coffins so he can mingle with the wealthy and cheat at golf. I think he can’t make me any sicker, I should know better by now.
I believe I said hope was always late to the party — and here it is! As for disrespecting the service members, you are right. There is no bottom to Trump’s evil.
Big turnout in Santa Fe….even the dogs wore signs. Sampling…Resistance is not futile….Be glad we want equality, not revenge…Hands off our data…F-Elon and the Felon…Criminally rich, morally bankrupt…Love Trumps Hate. Glad you and Dale hit the bricks for this one.
There were so many great signs. Happy to hear Santa Fe is on top of it.
Yay for Santa Fe! Were you rallying at the Plaza?
I LOVE going to protests and I always don`t want to go the day before. But being there fills you to the brim, the yeah the signs are always great, and the day is always well spent. Since I am out of the country, I thank you for representin`. All I could do was look at all the pictures and videos after (recommend Bluesky for that). And I teared up from that. We outnumber him, and plenty.
My favorite sign was “We`re underreacting.”
Bonus treat to finally see Dale. All props to him as well.
Happy to do my part! It DID feel like we outnumbered him.
I told Dale you were happy to see him at last. He loved that.
This is so uplifting seeing all the people with signs. Gives us some hope, right? I couldn’t get up to Roseville yesterday but I’m glad to hear it was a big turnout. Yay for you and Dale! Hope you had your SPF50 on.
I didn’t realize you guys were local. How cool! When we made the turn by the mall, we couldn’t believe it. So many people, and I haven’t seen anything in the media. A little bit in the Bee this morning, but it was just about Sac. No mention of any other sites. I think Auburn had a protest, too. This should be front-page news everywhere!
Yep we are actually in Rancho Murieta, about 45 min south east of Roseville. Whereabouts are you and Dale? Very little in media about the rallies. I think the oligarchs are paying media not to post info and pics of protests. I did read that there was one in Auburn. I wonder what kind of reaction we would get if we drove by a rally in our Tesla with an anti-Musk sign hanging out our window.
Neighbors! We are in El Dorado Hills. I am so disappointed in the media coverage of the protests.
Thank you for doing this! It is so outside both my comfort zone and mind-space capacity at the moment. But I am so excited to see all the protests country wide.
Glad to represent! I think you have enough going on — we’ve got your back.
Good for you! Boise had over 1,000, I think, and many smaller towns in red Idaho had hundreds. This is the first one we couldn’t go to because we’re out of town helping our son and his fiance who was in the hospital for a couple of weeks. I was happy to see so many people all across the nation. A friend told me she saw several people on walkers protesting in her town. Lots of angry people and few counter-protestors.
I love that Idaho turned out! We saw a lot of elderly and disabled people at the protest. And same — no counter-protesters unless you count the drive-bys who flipped us off. And even then, it was only a few.
We had over 12,000 (newspaper estimate… it looked like more) here in San Diego. It did my heart good to see everyone. I know what you mean about having tears in your eyes. When I saw everyone on the PACKED trolley headed downtown, then also on the train coming in from further north, I started crying with tears of joy.
That is beautiful! Tears of joy — that’s how we felt.
A little late reading this, but want you to know we also did our first ever protest on the 5th. I was pleasantly surprised that there were a few hundred participants in our bright red county. We made our own signs, “Stop The Heel.”
Speaking of Chambersburg (I’m not far from there), it’s now populated by many Spanish speaking immigrants, much to the dismay of the local Confederate flag contingent. And, you’ll be pleased to know that Chambersburg, along with Gettysburg, Lancaster and York all had admirable turnouts for the day
Congratulations! I’m so happy people are out there demonstrating.
We have fond memories of Chambersburg. I went to Shippensburg. Great news about Gettysburg, Lancaster and York. Who would have thought?