Thousands of people attended Hands Off rallies throughout our region Saturday. In Plattsburgh, hundreds gathered in the wind and pouring rain in Trinity Park to join the nationwide protest of Trump Administration actions.
Despite the wet, windy, cold, clammy day people congregated in the park listening to speeches and holding signs that read Tiny Hands Off Social Security Checks, Hands Off Greenland, Pro-America – Anti-Trump, and Felon 47.
Soaked but enthusiastic about the rally, Chazy resident Teri Fox is livid about Trump Administration actions.
“Everything is getting exponentially more expensive while also revoking safety nets as well as impacting people’s savings. And they have cut us off from our allies. They are trying to control the information. So I personally believe this is a hostile government takeover,” Fox asserted. “We are not ***ing around anymore. There’s a lot of us and there’s a lot more of us than the 25 billionaires that think they’re going to rape the country.”
Twelve-year Old Kiah Cole held a sign stating Men of Quality Don’t Fear Equality.
“I feel like we need a less corrupt system and a little more love in the world. You know, care for the people a little bit more.” Cole adds, “We hate you.”
Town of Plattsburgh resident Trevor Cole stood beside his daughter.
“The way things are going on right now affects my whole family. It affects me and it affects how we care for our parents and it affects how we care for our children. And it’s from top to bottom all of these issues concern us all so deeply and at an elemental level that we have to come out and show what we stand for and what we stand against,” Cole said. “People are unified against this terrible system and this corrupt government that has taken over. They’ve drained the swamp only to sell the dry land to their billionaire friends. And the people are coming out in droves in small towns saying the way you are running this is hurting all of us.”
Eighty-one-year-old Mary Alice Shemo stood on the grass using her walker
“Trump’s policies are just awful for just so many people. Trump has to be out of office first of all and then it depends on who succeeds him how determined they are to reverse his policies. I don’t know if we can survive or not,” laments Shemo.
Plattsburgh resident Tom Lynch says Trump is destroying the nation’s international prominence.
“I’m fed up of Trump using the Constitution as his toilet paper. And I hate to be so crude but I think it’s come to that point where this man is totally, totally out of his mind and destroying what this country has stood for for years. His policy of America First is not making America first. It’s taking us out of our world leadership position,” Lynch notes. “He’s doing exactly what Putin has wanted. It’s just one of many, many things that we see going on here.”
Heather Berry was with her eight-year-old daughter Pepper McIntyre who was holding a sign stating Hands Off My Future.
"Her rights and my rights are in jeopardy. And we are some of the luckier few, the privileged, because we have pale skin and we were born In this country and we need to stand up for everybody’s rights and ours included, right?”
Pepper nods her head, “Yeah.”
Berry continues, “Pepper has autism and they are shutting down, or trying to shut down, the Department of Education. They are trying to take away any sort of supports in the school system for children that are not mainstream students. It’s a right in this country that everybody gets at least our basic education. And he’s trying to take those things away from us.”
“I would try to get that back,” exclaims Pepper, “because it’s important to learn.”
At least 20 communities in Vermont held Hands Off rallies. Between 10,000 and 15,000 people are estimated to have attended the event in Montpelier, the nation’s smallest capital city.
