BY STACIE LETT CAIN
More than 400 people gathered in Downtown Statesville on Saturday to peacefully protest the executive actions and policies of the Trump administration.
One of more than 2,000 “No Kings” demonstrations held across the United States, the local event drew enough protesters to fill the street corner in front of the Statesville Civic Center. A single counter-protester carrying a “Trump 2028” sign stood alone on the opposite side of the street.
A day after Statesville Police Chief David Onley warned that the SPD would have a “visible presence” and enforce state and local laws, officers were out in force for the event. There were no major issues and no arrests were made, Onley said Saturday evening.
Adorned in red, white and blue, Troutman resident Julie Harrison was among the protesters.
“I believe the guardrails of our democracy are being abused and a lot of what this president is doing is unconstitutional,” she said. “If we don’t stand up now, we risk not having anything to stand up for.”
The protest, organized by Statesville resident Peggy Palmer, was part of a grassroots effort to bring like-minded people together to express their opposition to the Trump administration. In an email sent out to participants ahead of the event, Palmer outlined the expectations for protesters.
“The protest is expected to be peaceful,” the email read. “Peaceful, visual and strongly attended.”
Although SPD officers said they had expected fewer than 50 protesters, a crowd of more than 400 began gathering outside the Civic Center before 11 a.m. Many carried American flags and signs declaring the need for peace, constitutionality and democracy.
It wasn’t Statesville resident Sarah Benbow’s first protest. While attending a 1969 demonstration with more than 500,000 people in Washington, D.C., she was among the protesters who were tear-gassed.
Some things, she explained, are worth standing up for.
“I am worried about our democracy, our people and our immigrants,” she explained while holding up a sign decorated with tea bags and the words “Haven’t We Been Here Before.”
“We are all immigrants really,” Benbow said. “I just don’t understand why we have to beat other people down.”
Pastor Maggie Hurst spoke to the crowd at the beginning of the event, questioning the administration’s treatment of undocumented immigrants.
“I want to acknowledge that nearly all of us here are immigrants ourselves or are descendants of immigrants,” Hurst said. “They came to this state that was established on stolen land of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, Coharie, Haliwa-Saponi, Lumbee, Meherrin, the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, Sappony and Waccamaw Indigenous Nations. They are the original Americans.”
For the past six weeks, she has been holding vigil a few blocks away from the site of Saturday’s protest.
“I love this community, this state, my country,” she said. “But my heart is hurting at the politics of division, the policies of pain, prejudice, power used abusively, pervasive propaganda, priority of party over people, and planned destruction of Federal programs designed to help people, our neighbors.”
Despite the current political climate, she expressed hope for the future.
“We must be about finding a pathway to be reconciled with our brothers and sister on the other side of the street, on the other side of the aisle, on the other side,” she said. “We must find that common ground that binds us together, that way to reconciliation so that one day we may live in a beloved community of justice, love and solidarity.”
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Definition of illegal is not legal
We were honored to be there! Big crowd considering a small “conservative” town! LOTS of veterans!
THANKS to Peggy and everyone that helped set this up!
Pretty sad are a people who are never satisfied and who bite the hand that is helping them…
Don Ledbetter
Who is he helping, exactly??
Not those of us who depend on Medicaid for health insurance;
Not those of us with terminal illnesses who hope for cures found in medical research;
Not the future leaders of our country who can no longer afford to attend our excellent universities;
Not those of us who are retired and depend on our Social Security and Medicare benefits that are being threatened;
Not those of us who must decide between paying for groceries or needed medicines each month;
and certainly not those of us who will end up having to pay higher taxes just to fund him, his family and his billionaire cronies.
I’m not sad, I’m mad. And you’re damn right I’m not satisfied.
You are misinformed, likely by CNN or the DNC propaganda. Getting people off of Medicaid who do not qualify for it is a good thing and leaves more resources for those who do.
As reported in great detail in “Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions”, by Richard Harris, is the sad state of “scientific” research being done in our nation today and at considerable taxpayer expense.
The NIH has a budget of nearly $30 BILLION. And according to this book, about 88% of it is wasted on junk science with results that can’t be repeated, even by the original scientists. This isn’t a way to get cures for any disease, let alone cancer.
There are always alternatives to government loans for those wanting to go to college. The government loan business has actually contributed to the increased costs and the offering of so many worthless degrees.
No cuts are being made to Social Security and Medicare. Yes, both of those programs need to be revised and made more solvent, but Trump has said he is not the one to do it. He is leaving it in the hands of the Congress and Senate.
Trump has reduced inflation from the Biden high to now less than 3%. This helps people afford groceries. Gasoline prices are down now too. This leaves more money in families’ wallets.
And if the “big, beautiful bill” passes the Trump tax cuts of 2017 which lowered our taxes will be made permanent.
Please try to expand your sources because there are MANY reliable and credible sources that dispute most of your points. The tax breaks for “us” that you speak of in your last paragraph is only meant to last until 2028, the end of Trump’s term. In other words, it was thrown in there as a distraction to look good. (Otherwise why would it end at that time?)
YOU should have been out protesting about it when the Biden & Harris Admin. was letting everything your’re speaking on into law & allowing millions of “NOT LEGAL” people flood our country. So, your totally fine with the killers, rapists, pedos, in here RIGHT? What about the AMERICANS that died because of BIDEN letting these killers in? Your fine knowing AMERCANS died because Biden let these killers in to do it?! WOW! Well you have a few killers move in next door to you then. Sound good?You do know that our neighbors in the mtns. Got no help from FEMA because they were giving it all to the “Not legals.” And there is so much more! Biden did this! TRUMP is trying to fix it. HE Will. He has been in office 6 mo. Fixing Bidens mess will take time. Trump will do it. Y’all need to help people understand why y’all want gangs, killers,rapists, pedos, and the like to live next door to you and be given soc sec money our tax money, FEMA money etc. clean us out because WHY???? WHAT ARE Y’ALL DOING? Make some sense
Good to see great turnout all across the country. We went to the rally in Davidson. Good to see so many American flags from people doing one of the most American things we have a right to do.
There is already a “No Kings Day” that America celebrates every year on July 4th.
Anything else, like this “demonstration”, shows only ignorance, foolishness and stupidity
Barrack Obama issued 276 executive orders. Trump has issued 220. He has more catching up to do in the next three years. The worst offender was socialist FDR, the darling of the Democrats who begat the fatted pig of the federal government we have now, who issued 3,721 of them.
No, we don’t have kings, but we have an Executive Branch with well-defined powers as established by the Founders in their wisdom. As Obama noted when asked, “elections have consequences”.
Trump has the same full rights as any President ever had.
Trumpers will always be Trumpers. They are different from traditional Republicans such as Eisenhower and the Bushes. And Trump despisers will always despise Trump. We’re split. The worst in my lifetime. Families are ripped. Let us try to be kind in the midst of it all.
Let me say that yours are the most sensible comments I have read here.
What a disgusting display of ignorance & misinformation ! President Trump is trying to fix the mess that the liberals got us in ! God bless President Trump !