Great Barrington — Resident Asa Peabody came out to Saturday’s Hands Off! rally concerned about all Trump has done “to hurt” the transgender community. “I’m LGBT and disabled, and I need all the funds [he is threatening to cut],” said Peabody. But he was heartened by his community and the support of everybody coming out: “It’s going to be really big and really amazing.”
“My husband and I are veterans,” said another woman holding up what had been her yard sign: “Veterans against Trump.” “We were both federal employees; we have family who are still federal employees. [The cuts are] going to affect everybody in this country.”
A peaceful crowd of several hundred protesters filled the lawn and the streets in front of Great Barrington’s Town Hall on April 5, part of the nationwide movement of Hands Off! protests against the Trump administration’s policies. Not all could point to a specific way that Trump’s polices would affect them personally, but all were nonetheless gravely concerned about the state of American democracy. Many expressed cautious hope that those who had supported Trump were beginning to question the wisdom of his policies. And despite the possibility that here in the Berkshires they were preaching to the choir, everyone felt it was an important and worthy endeavor to come out and make their voices heard.
“Trump always was worried about crowd size,” as one protester put it. She was holding a sign protesting cuts to national parks and was concerned, along with her granddaughter, that scores of rangers were being decimated. “A number of years ago when the government shut down for two weeks, I remember in Joshua Tree, people went in and just destroyed things because there were no rangers to protect them.”
Threats to Medicare and Social Security were high on protestors’ radar. “I’m 69, so next year, I was hoping to have Social Security,” said one woman, “and it’s an important part of my economic picture, and I’m not alone. I know people who rely on Medicare, and they’re already suffering hardships financially.” She also knew a lot of veterans and was outraged at the injustice against them. “It’s like somebody coming into our country who doesn’t understand what the rules are,” said the Great Barrington resident, who elected to remain anonymous because, as she said, “people are being taken, even if it’s not on Fox News.” She referenced an immigrant couple in New York City and a German man in the Boston airport.
“I, for one, am having a hard time sleeping,” she said. “One thing I’m learning is maybe we need to rethink the rights of the president. I mean, how many executive orders do they get, an infinite number? If I wasn’t in a blue state, I’d probably be in a deep depression. To know I can talk to people about it, to know the press is interested in presenting the facts—that’s really vital.” At the same time, she thought, “the other side … has to be affected … especially if Social Security is. I think the people who voted for him are already having a rude awakening.” She continued, “But I have friends who are Republicans. I’m not going to say to myself, ‘I don’t want to have any contact with the other side.’ I think that’s a problem in and of itself, too.”
Great Barrington resident Guy Nordoff pointed out that “it’s getting harder to discern” what the sides are. “It doesn’t seem that one side really stands for everything,” he said. “You might be a Trump supporter because you feel that immigration at the border is not properly being managed, but … against Trump when it comes to something else. Trump seems to have supported everything possible to get as many votes as he could. But the one thing that he didn’t stand for, I think, is the environment, which is something that we care a lot about.” He added, “I’m trying to find that middle ground, which seems lost.” When they hear immigrants in New York City “are being given $5,000 each and a place to live,” sometimes the seniors in his assisted living facility are like, “What about me?”
“I don’t want an uncontrollable wave of people,” said another protester, “until they can figure out how seniors and veterans and everyone can be serviced … but we have more than enough resources to take care of everybody.” She shared, “As a person who’s worked with migrant workers and their children, knowing what they go through and how [some women] struggle to get out of some really machismo, scary [situations] … I’m devastated, because they’re scared, and I just see it.”
Another protester cited social issues as the most prominent for him, and “just the way they’ve usurped power. We’re protesting one-party rule,” he said. “We need someone to save us, and it’s not the Democrats, so who’s it going to be?” He was there with his kids, one of whom said that “equality” brought them out to the protest. “I’m telling them,” said the father, “they’ve got to be the solution, so I’m training them up fast,” he laughed.
A Sheffield resident who manages several businesses noted that Trump’s recent economic measures were shaking people. “It’s starting to get real for people,” he said. “A lot of people were coming in the last few days and saying, ‘What the hell’s going on with my 401K?’ It’s the first time that people who weren’t necessarily paying attention are saying, ‘This is going to affect me.’ … People are starting to wake up,” he thought. “Maybe it’s too late, damage control at this point.”
Linda, a Great Barrington resident attending the protest in her wheelchair who was concerned about Medicare and Social Security, noted that while the stock market lost $5 trillion in the last two days, “it doesn’t come back in two days.” She agreed: “I think the people who voted for him didn’t expect him to be doing what he’s doing. I’m hoping they’ll change their minds.” She pointed out that even four Republican senators came out against Trump’s tariffs. “I was glad to see Mitch McConnell stand up, because I think he’s been biting his tongue for a long time.” She hopes more Republicans will join the Democrats on upcoming votes.
Another protestor, whose father fought in World War II (and “would be rolling over in his grave that Trump is getting us out of NATO and abandoning what America stood for”), feared, “Some people just dig in their heels, so I don’t know. I’m hoping the tide is going to turn, but at what cost? What have we lost already and how do we salvage [it]?”
The protest was almost over. “I told myself I had to stay till the bitter end,” she said. She had wanted to go protest in a larger city. “I feel like the mainstream media has to see millions of people in the streets before they’ll cover it more fairly,” she said. But a lawyer-activist friend told her, “This is your community … even the small gatherings are going to matter because … we in the rural areas need to show our voices too.” Even in the “blue bubble” of the Berkshires, hearing people beep in support helped a bit. “It’s like OK, we’re in this together,” she thought.
Read about the Hands Off! protest in Pittsfield here.
