West Stockbridge — For resident Amanda Dalzell, participation in a July 17 protest honoring the legacy of former legislator John Lewis was important, not just for her concerns about the presence of Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in area communities and to safeguard the future of her children, but for her livelihood.
A first-generation farmer, she cited support for those agricultural entities that have been the recipient of national grants, mostly grants that reimburse farmers for monies already spent. When they paid those bills, the farmers relied on federal assurances that the expenditures would be compensated.
Although Dalzell said her farm has not yet been impacted by tariffs employed by the President Donald Trump and his administration, she has a large irrigation project funded by a federal grant. She has been told those monies are safe, but “if that grant goes up in smoke, then we are going to be in trouble as a business,” she said.
Dalzell’s grandfather sold pumpkins from the land her family is farming on now and started the rhubarb plants that are thriving. Three Maples Market Garden, begun in 2011, is named for the maples planted by the elder.
The nationwide Good Trouble rally organized by John Lewis Actions has a local counterpart, WSResistance, with resident Anne Roy coordinating the effort held at the West Stockbridge Village Congregational Church.
With nearly 150 supporters in attendance, the event occurred on the fifth anniversary of John Lewis’ death. The late U.S. representative for Georgia’s 5th Congressional District was vocal in the American Civil Rights movement and was instrumental in the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act prohibiting racial discrimination in voting.
The local program complemented at least five other Berkshire rallies transpiring on the same afternoon. “It’s more of an honoring today, honoring a wonderful soul who’s really paved the way for us to continue to peacefully speak up,” Roy said of the program. Her community has sponsored other rallies opposing actions taken by this federal administration, including a June event drawing 400 participants.
Through the resounding noise espoused by honking horns from passing vehicles, Roy told The Berkshire Edge that her goal for the rally is to “enlighten others”—that fascism “touches every aspect of what’s happening in our nation” regarding women’s and children’s rights and the shrinking of education and library institutions.
According to Roy, the organizers of the July 17 rallies kept in contact with one another when scheduling their events, limiting overlap so participants could attend more than one program. “We’re humble and we’re small, but we’re mighty,” she said of her team of coordinators. “The camaraderie is just palpable here, and it feeds the soul being at something like this. We’re doing something. We’re doing something.”
Cambridge, Mass., residents Karen Corsano and Dan Williman traveled from their Wareham, Mass., summer home to the rally “to stand up for democracy, to stand up for what is right, for due process,” Corsano said. “It feels good to be here in West Stockbridge with West Stockbridge people,” she said.
The pair was protesting recent deportations of immigrants by the Trump administration, actions Williman characterized as “abductions by masked bandits paid by the government and unknown to the public.” Corsano pointed out that the government is ignoring its own federal agencies and established science principles.
Despite the warm and humid temperatures, longtime resident Vicki Bonnington dressed as American flag creator “Betsy Ross.” “One of the tenets I have is [that] Americans are not alarmed enough about the loss of our democracy and that some suffering and some sacrifice is going to be required,” she said. “This is nothing, nothing compared to what the soldiers have sacrificed for America, for what many, many people, including John Lewis, has suffered for America. This is nothing. It doesn’t trouble me that I’m hot. It makes me happy to be here and honor John Lewis.”
Lewis was beaten during a Selma, Ala., Civil Rights march in 1965. “The man deserves every accolade we can think of because he was one of the linchpins of the Civil Rights Movement and making America a better place,” Bonnington said.
Instead of sitting at the lake sunbathing, vacationers Carol Baumstein and Andrew Hodgdon of Arlington, Mass., gave up their afternoon to participate in the West Stockbridge rally. “We all have an opportunity to speak up and make our concerns known,” Baumstein said.
For Hodgdon, the rally paid homage to his mother, a war bride who escaped from fascism in Italy, as well as to Baumstein’s 25 Hungarian family members lost in the Holocaust, equating the national climate of today to historic government takeovers headed by dictators Adolph Hitler in Germany and Benito Mussolini in Italy.
“I’ve known for nine years that this day would come, and it worries the hell out of me,” he said recounting seeing a Trump-led event in 2015. “I don’t want them to do this to our wonderful country, to divide people, which is the trick they’ve used. They’ve used the fast media to divide people. We only will exist as a country if we get along together and can talk with each other instead of throwing stones.”
Westfield State University Professor Karen LaVoie held a two-sided green sign donning words of protest against this administration’s national policies. She voiced concern over recent federal funding cuts to Head Start programs that provide health, education, and social services to families and children in need. “The schools around the Berkshires survive on those grants,” LaVoie said. “If that funding continues to be removed, there are kids who are going to go to school and they won’t have food. They won’t be fed. They’ll come to school hungry, they’ll go home hungry, and that can’t happen.”
Lenox resident Rich Moche, accompanied by Heidi Brown, considers the country’s political situation “an outrage,” citing this month’s legislative passage of the H.R.1 budget act signed into law by Trump and recent federal steps taken to defund public media. Brown added her concern for dismantling the Department of Education and other threats to democracy as the impetus for attending the rally.
“Without having people protest in the streets, it doesn’t seem like anything else is effective,” Moche said. He touted studies providing that once the protest level reaches a sustained participation by 3.5 percent of a population, the movement will see success. “We want to be part of that three percent,” he said.
The Hoping Machine
With harmonious voices, musical group The Hoping Machine led the crowd in song, including “This Land is Your Land” and other tunes of support. The band—comprised of Jim Caron (violin), Steve Mole (guitar), Steve Borst (resonator guitar), and Senta Brodeur (vocals, ukelele)—donated their time to the program.
Founded in 2017 just following Trump’s election, the group’s story began when Berkshire musician Sarah Lee Guthrie went to Washington, D.C., to protest the new administration in the only way she knew how: with her guitar, Caron said. However, with no other artists singing, Guthrie was dismayed, Caron said, and prompted colleagues to “show up at rallies and sing uplifting songs.”
So, The Hoping Machine was born, bringing melody to political events in the tradition of activist musician Pete Seeger. The group also sent performers to the day’s rallies in Pittsfield and Great Barrington.
“We took a break for four years,” Mole joked. “So, we have been revived, unfortunately.”
