By Joe Wicke and Ashna Balroop
Capital News Service
ANNAPOLIS – Henry Taft remembered protesting against the Vietnam War when he was a student at the University of California, Berkeley.
He remembered the lingering smell of tear gas on campus. He recalled members of a SWAT team chasing him and other protesters.
More than 50 years later, he joined hundreds Saturday in Annapolis for the No Kings protest against the Trump administration and to try, he said, to help his “country go in the right direction.”
“I am a firm believer in democracy, and I don’t like what’s happening in our government,” Taft, a 74-year-old Annapolis resident, said. “And I think this is our last chance to recover it before it’s unrecoverable.”
The protest marked the fourth day of No Kings demonstrations across the country and one of 3,000 planned events, including in Annapolis and Washington, D.C. Organizers said the demonstrations are to rally against some of President Donald Trump’s policies, including the nationwide crackdown on immigration, healthcare cuts and demands for states to redraw their congressional district lines.
The protests also served as a “day of nonpartisan voter participation” and focused on mobilizing people to vote early, organizers said.
“I think that people across the country are going to mobilize to early vote,’’ Sarah Parker, executive director of Voices of Florida and a national coordinator with 50501, a grassroots movement, said in an interview Saturday with MS NOW’s The Weekend. “They are passionate. They want to do something more than just hold a sign and rally. And we’re giving them the opportunity to do that.”
In Annapolis, protesters outside the Annapolis Mall held signs that read, “This wannabe King deserves a royal flush” and “Voting is our superpower.” Chesapeake Indivisible, a Maryland chapter of Indivisible, a national grassroots movement, hosted the event.
Angela Mezzomo, who serves as the communications facilitator for Chesapeake Indivisible, said the “Vote Early” slogan is a response to concerns of potential election meddling.
“There’s a lot of concern about some of the rhetoric that we’re hearing of potential shenanigans with mail-in votings or adverse actions at the polling places on November 3,” Mezzomo said. “We want to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard, and to help ensure that we are encouraging every single person, doesn’t matter if they agree with us or not.”
Protesters aim to protect democracy
In nearby Washington, hundreds of protesters walked from the White House to the U.S. Capitol. Some protesters donned costumes, while others carried signs that read, “Flush the orange turd” and “America fires kings.” As they walked, they shouted, “Hey hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go.” They also urged people to vote.
Peter Stinson, an organizer and First Amendment advocate, urged protesters to meet new people, discuss their action plan to vote and encourage others to cast ballots.
“We have to end the fascism, and Congress is the way forward,” Stinson said. “They will not act because they have no backbone.”
While a central theme was early voting for the midterm elections, protesters told Capital News Service they joined the demonstration to show their displeasure with Trump and his policies.
“I really believe that our country is developing, getting closer and closer to being a perfect union, and I see the current administration as a serious threat to our journey as a democratic republic,” said Bill Griffin, an 82-year-old from Washington, D.C. “I think he’s violating the Constitution over and over again.”
Isaac Alegria, an 18-year-old American University student, said he’s witnessed the impacts of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown on his community.
“There’s people that have been kidnapped, people that have been mugged outside, people that have been picked up by armed men with face coverings,’’ Alegria said. “We have absolutely no idea who they are, but we know they have guns.”
“It affects me personally because a lot of these people look like me and look like my parent.”
Ariana Bobiak, 19, also a student at American University, said it was important to join the protest because she feels states are not facilitating voting rights and that it’s becoming harder for people to vote.
“I just wanted to come out here to show that voting is important, voting is a privilege and voting is a right,” Bobiak said.
Bobiak said she’s upset with Trump’s vanity projects, including the draining of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and the administration’s plans for a 250-foot arch near the Arlington National Cemetery.
“We’re spending millions of millions of dollars on these things and they’re not working, while they could be going to things like … healthcare,” Bobiak said.
Others traveled across the country to join the demonstration in the nation’s capital. Laura Chariton, a 74-year-old from Marin County, California, told CNS she attended the protest in part to honor the memory of her father.
“My dad fought in World War II,” Chariton said. “He had two purple hearts. He was in Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, and he would be horrified about what’s happening in this country today.”
‘Voting is a privilege’
Back in Annapolis, Julie Stanik, a veteran who served at the Naval Health Clinic Annapolis, said American elections are “in peril” and the Trump administration has “systematically tried to undermine our elections and all of our institutions.”
“I took an oath of office in 1974 to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Stanik said. “I never thought it was going to be domestic. I never thought it was going to be our president.”
Some protesters carried props or wore costumes to make a statement.
Liz Crane-Wexler, who serves as an election judge in Edgewater, wore a full-body frog costume. She said she was inspired by the Portland Frog Brigade, a grassroots organization that promotes peaceful protesting by donning amphibian suits.
“They can’t see you as a threat,” Crane-Wexler said. “Plus, I love to make small children smile.”
Paul Flack, an Annapolis resident, wore a Burger King crown and carried a stadium horn. As cars passed by, he blew into the horn.
Flack said he is a registered Republican who has voted along party lines in multiple primary elections, but joined the demonstration to protect democracy.
“Democracy is fragile. You have to fight for it sometimes,” Flack said. “Unfortunately, you have to make a showing and say that this is what we want.”
