Updated to include video interviews
An Appleton-record protest crowd estimated at between four and five thousand braved low-thirties wind chills on Saturday afternoon and descended on Houdini Plaza as part of the third nationwide No Kings Rally.
Across the country more than 8 million people marched in protest against the Trump administration and what they see as increasing authoritarianism tendencies, from the undeclared war in Iran to defiance of court orders, warrantless arrests and due process violations, among many others.
Several hundred showed up an hour before the official 3 p.m. start time, bundled up against the unseasonably cold temperatures and bearing signs – some funny, some vulgar, some pointed and direct. Most honed to the theme but the launching of the Iran war a month ago provided fresh fodder for the protesters.
Unlike in previous protests, College Avenue from Appleton to Durkee Streets was blocked off and the overflow crowd from Houdini Plaza filled the street. Cars going up and down Appleton Street responded to the event, mostly with honks of support. A few cars and motorcycles bearing Trump banners revved their engines as they drove by.
Protesters generally adhered to the organizers’ pleas to refrain from engaging with Trump supporters. One passenger in a car stopped at the light and videoing out his window, yelled repeatedly, “Define what a woman is!” to taunts and laughter. There were no reported incidents of violence.
While there were the usual speeches and chants, this rally featured a new wrinkle: a march east down College, a few left turns and then back west on College and a return to Houdini Plaza. The wall of protesters, signs aloft and chanting, combined with the steady beat of a lone drummer to produce a sense of palpable defiance.
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No Kings March through downtown Appleton
Veterans express outrage
Some protestors who were either military vets or had family members currently serving or who had fought in past wars, expressed outrage over the Iran war.
“I’m not happy with Trump,” said Reid. “I’m a veteran. My mother and my father both served in World War Two, and that was a war against fascism, and yet here we are becoming a fascist state, thanks to Trump and the Republicans. And my dad was a lifelong Republican and would not recognize the Republican Party today.”
A woman named Pat said she couldn’t understand how the United States would stand for things it fought against more than a half-century ago.
“Never, never would I have thought this is where we would be today,” she said. “My father and my father-in-law were in the service in World War Two. My father was one of them coming to Normandy.
“We have to stop this. Every one of us is different. We’re a mosaic of different people. That’s what makes us great. So I’m here to represent people, and we have to take our country back.”
Diane, who at age 90 was attending her first protest, lost two uncles in World War II. Her husband and son are retired from the military.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” she said. “I’ve been through a lot of presidents. Roosevelt was my first and I was nine years old at that time. Our country, it’s going downhill. This upsets me so much. They talk about the Constitution. He’s not following the Constitution, and yet it seems like they’re doing nothing to stop him.”
An anonymous man spoke of a grandfather who fought in World War I, a father who fought in World War II and a cousin who is currently in the Marines. He worries that Trump’s actions in Iran have put the country in great danger.
“I think we’re in more peril than ever before,” he said. “I think that if this war continues to escalate, there could be grave consequences. About a week ago, there were waves of drones at an Air Force base that housed nuclear bombers. He better watch the trouble he starts. There could be great mayhem, and if there’s nuclear war, we all could perish within 30 minutes.”
Issues of morality
Others, like Dawn, were more concerned with the country’s deteriorating morals.
“It’s not a political right or left,” she said. “It’s right or wrong. And I’m very worried. I mean, he’s a criminal. He should be in jail.”
David, a Green Party candidate for State Assembly in District 5, was on hand to promote his candidacy but was also there to vent his anger at the Trump administration. He said it was his outrage over Trump that drove him into politics.
“I’m really tired of the disrespect, the finger pointing, the lies,” he said. “We should be demanding better. At a time when we can fact-check everything, to be told lie after a lie. Even just this war in Iran, he’s like, we won the war; we asked for a ceasefire; oh, we won again; oh, no, they want a ceasefire. It’s just like, how do you not know what’s going on and why aren’t we getting the real story ever?”
Jeannie, who is autistic, said she was braving the crowds to attend her first-ever protest because she doesn’t like the direction the country is taking.
“I needed to be another body to help out here,” she said. “I understand this is a slippery slope. If you understand history, it’s not a Democrat thing, it’s not a Republican thing, it’s a human thing.”
She was most concerned with women’s rights and the things she’s seeing online from mostly young, white males.
“I’m fifty years old now, and until five years ago, you couldn’t have told me this was going to be this way,” she said. “You’re not raised to think that that could happen. But you know, if you study history, I should have been known better.”
