Part of nationwide protest against Trump’s divisive policies
OCEAN CITY — Protesters turned out en masse across the country for “No Kings” rallies Saturday, decrying the policies of the Trump administration and fearing a deterioration of the nation’s democracy. Major cities were packed with protesters and smaller communities drew crowds as well.
A rally in America’s Greatest Family Resort, hosted by Indivisible Ocean City, drew well beyond the number of protesters for a similar event in Ocean City in June. Organizers estimated the June crowd at 2,000.
The protesters gathered first to listen to speakers in the park at Ninth Street and Bay Avenue in the morning and then fanned out on the walkway along the Route 52 causeway from Bay Avenue to the Welcome Center. Local protesters carried an array of signs and talked about the many issues that concern them. Some wore silly and inflatable costumes to show it was a peaceful assembly.
“It was great,” said Louis Stricoff, who is on the leadership team of Indivisible Ocean City. “It wasn’t just Democrats. People have to realize this. We have many disgruntled Republicans that have come up to me and said, ‘He’s not what I voted for. He’s gone too far,’” referring to President Donald Trump.
He said he couldn’t accurately assess the exact number of protesters, but estimated some 3,000 to 4,000 attending.
“Indivisible is not a Democratic movement, although most of the people who show up are Democrats,” he said. “We want everybody who’s just not happy with the way things are going.”
Stricoff said they were fastidious to not leave any trash behind and the police were great. He said one member of a tiny group of counter-protesters told him he didn’t agree with their viewpoints but supported their right to protest. “I told him, ‘God bless you.’”
He said he doesn’t know what effect the protest has, but it shows people who may be hesitant to express themselves that there are like-minded people “and it gives them the courage to come out.”
“It’s what democracy is,” Stricoff said.
Assembly candidate Carolyn Rush, one of multiple speakers early in the rally, talked about how good terms are being co-opted.
“Who doesn’t agree with anti-fascism, but they’ve taken that and changed it into a bad thing. That is not OK.
“We need to keep our spirits up, keep protesting and keep fighting for what we know is right. We love America, and we refuse to let our democracy go. We know America is not perfect and it never has been, but we love the promise of an even better America, but not one that’s run by a king.”
Joanne Leahy from Lanoka Harbor was dressed as a banana, motivated to attend the protest by “everything that Trump is doing, every word, every lie out of his mouth.”
“The health care and the democracy of the whole country is just getting crumpled under his control, and it’s mind-blowing,” Leahy said. “I feel like I’m in the ‘Twilight Zone’ some days, so I do feel like a banana,” she said, adding she got the idea for the costume from protesters in Portland wearing silly outfits to show they weren’t posing a danger, refuting what the president said about that city.
“I’m from Ocean County but these are my people here. I traveled here because this is a great group,” Leahy said.
“We don’t like what we see going on,” protesters Jack and Karen Sheppard of Washington Township said.
“It’s terrible right now. Just terrible. It’s not America,” Jack Sheppard said, adding they couldn’t sit back and watch so they felt it was important to come out and protest.
“It’s heartbreaking. It’s devastating,” Karen Sheppard added. “It’s not America. He’s not our president, that’s for sure. He said he only wants to be the president of the people who kiss his butt.”
“I just don’t want my grandkids growing up in an autocracy,” said Barbara Clark of Garnet Valley, Pa. “I want them to grow up in the society that we grew up with, with democracy, not one person making all the decisions or one group of people making all the decisions for us.”
“We have to get rid of Trump and his fascist regime,” added Karen Maggio, who lives in Ashton, Pa., but has a home in Ocean City.
“My note to all those folks who voted for Trump or for the GOP members of Congress who are voting in favor of his policies, or for confirmation of his cabinet members, this is what you have given us,” said Ocean City resident Kathy, who didn’t offer her last name.
“You did this.”
Carrying a placard that read “We have a Constitution not a king,” Dorothy Gadboisn, a second-home owner in Ocean City from Bucks County, Pa., said the president is ignoring the Constitution.
“The First Amendment to the Constitution, we have a right to protest while we’re unhappy. I’m here for that. I don’t want to see ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in the cities. There’s a better way to handle that,” she said. “I don’t want to see troops be sent into the cities. I don’t want to see any hardships on my daughter who happens to be gay. I have a daughter who’s mentally ill and who’s on Medicaid, and I’m worried that she’s going to lose some of her benefits,” Gadboisn said.
“I grew up during the ’60s and we fought for our independence there as women, and against the war and all these other things, and that’s why I’m here. We have a right to protest,” she said.
Gadboisn said she also came because of her 103-year-old father, a Marine who fought in the Pacific during World War II. “He’s a proud American and a proud Marine. I’m also doing it for him.”
She noted her grandfather came to America as an immigrant from Poland and earned his citizenship fighting for the country in World War I.
Although Gaboisn lamented the fact there weren’t more young people at the protest — a majority of the protesters were older — there were younger people represented.
“There’s so much’s going wrong and we can’t do nothing, so we have to do something,” said Laurie Klein of Ocean City. “We can do this. We can vote. Sometimes you have to say something if you see something that’s wrong.”
“They’re taking away rights from people that aren’t unable to speak up for themselves so we have to speak up for everybody,” added Michael Colorado of Egg Harbor Township. “Even if it’s not us today, it could be us tomorrow. We’ve got to defend it whenever we can.”
Another pair of younger protesters were Nicole, 33, and Dave, 32, who wore face masks, sun glasses and live in Atlantic City.
“In the last several years of my life, I’ve really come to learn how much of what really makes America, the diversity of it, the immigration of it, how we spend our money, what it means to us, and how angry people are when they aren’t having their unified goals respected,” Nicole said.
“It really is nice coming here. I can’t tell you how many older folks are having come up to us, saying, ‘thank you for coming out for the younger generation.’ And we’re like, we felt the exact same way, but the opposite. We are happy to see the older generation out here trying to stick up for us. Having that sense of unity is really nice. It really makes a difference,” she said. “And the fact that we all are feeling like we’re just being completely ignored and annihilated and abused is why we’re out here,” she said.
“I just had a sign out here that said no sign is big enough to express how we feel,” Dave said. “I’m not going to identify myself, I wish to remain anonymous, but as a veteran, seeing this administration slowly deteriorate the constitutional rights of everybody that’s here, I didn’t sign up for that. The more I see this administration deteriorate people’s constitutional rights and their due process of law, it’s something that I felt like I needed to speak out about, so that’s why I’m here. It’s just not fair seeing marginalized groups being discriminated against the way that they are.”
Jim Todd, a Colorado resident who has a second home in Ocean City, was dressed up in a red, white and blue inflatable shark outfit with a placard reading, “I enjoy royalty for lunch. Got any kings you can toss my way?”
Like Leahy in her banana outfit, Todd got the idea from protesters in Portland. “I saw the inflatable costumes there and I thought ‘I have to get one of those.’ I ordered it on Wednesday, it arrived yesterday and I put all those together this morning.
“It’s an American shark. Very patriotic,” he said.
Todd came to the protest “because I fear we’re losing democracy. At first, I thought we were losing it slowly, and now I realize it’s speeding up. And by the end of the four-year term of this president, I think we could possibly almost completely lose it,” he said.
Remembering being part of the nation’s bicentennial celebration in 1976, when he was 18 years old, he was worried about next year’s 250th anniversary celebration.
“My fear is that in 2026, for the 250th, it’s not going to be a great event. It’s going to be sackcloth and ashes and not a celebration,” Todd said. He noted he’s been coming to Ocean City since he was 8 years old.
Robert Forman of Ocean City was holding a sign showing he is a Republican and a veteran who wants to “dump autocratic Trump.”
He came to the protest “just as a patriotic American, one who served his country, fought for the rights of free speech, fought for democracy, and finding that democracy and the Constitution are under attack by this administration.”
“I think it’s important to show up, to show our efforts. It’s one of the few ways we have right now to really fight because we can’t seem to get our congressional members to do much,” Forman said.
Colin Brigham, from central Massachusetts, was in the area visiting his son. He came to the protest with a sign, “Don’t ask good soldiers to do bad things.”
He was protesting because he sees the country “moving towards autocracy instead of democracy. (Trump is) trying to abandon the rule of law and make it so that the very rich, including him, are the ones that control the country, which is not obviously what we want.”
“Our soldiers are intended to help to defend the country, they’re not supposed to be involved in activities within the country, policing its citizens. That’s prohibited by the Constitution.”
Brigham said he went to the March in Washington, D.C. on April 5 with a group from his church. “It was great to see the emotion, the passion.”
Susan B. from Turnersville was wearing a bright pink inflatable unicorn costume.
“I am horrified at what’s going on in America, just horrified. The way we treat each other, the way we think of each other. I think Trump becoming president gave everyone the green light to be a disgusting human being and I don’t like it,” she said.
With a “Be Kind” T-shirt visible beneath the costume, she added, “I’m a school teacher, I teach very young children, and we teach them from a very young age that it matters to be kind, that everyone should be included, and they’re trying to rip that apart.”
She was another protester who wanted to mimic the peaceful protesters in Portland. “It was just such a genius move,” she said, because the president was lying about Portland being on fire “while there were unicorns and frogs dancing in the streets.”
Gretchen Markova of Ocean City came to the protest to see what the crowd would be like.
“I wanted to see if people would be nice and well behaved, if there’s going to be any negativity, and there isn’t,” she said. “Everybody’s so nice. Everybody’s smiling. The signs are so creative. They were asking people to pick up the trash after themselves.
“This is what we are,” she said. “You know, we are nice people. A real good protest, not mean, not nasty, just positive. I’m seeing the division in the political parties based on how nice they are and the people on their side are just not nice.”
Harvey Thompson of Philadelphia, who said he and his wife have had a second home in Ocean City for 30 years, came to the protest because he is “sick and tired of the oppression, the vindictiveness and the fear.”
A retired school psychologist from the Philadelphia school district, Thompson said he and his wife were vacationing in Europe this past spring and every cab driver neutrally asked what the couple thought about Trump. When they said “he’s a frickin’ narcissistic idiot,” the cab drivers were relieved and told them “the whole world thinks that.”
Thompson was wearing a button that read “Trump is the worst president since Trump.”
Charles Wray of Egg Harbor Township said Saturday’s rally wasn’t about hate.
“It’s not a rally about being anti-Trump. It’s about being pro-America and pro-Democracy. Keep it simple, that’s our message. I’ll leave it to history to decide what today means, but I think it will be a meaningful day for all Americans,” Wray said. He had a sign that read “Make lying wrong again” on one side and “Make America smart again” on the other.
Judy Patterson isn’t from Ocean City.
“I’m from North Carolina but I’m up here and I found out where there was a rally because I wasn’t going to miss it. Wherever it was I was going to find a rally.”
Patterson said she also went to the Women’s March in Washington.
“I’m supporting my country. It’s for my grandchildren. I want them to have a free country.”
Nationwide organizers are claiming 7 million people took part in rallies and marches through all 50 states.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
