“The uncertainty, the chaos, the craziness ― I just think people are at wit’s end," said Theresa Gasper, one of the organizers at Saturday’s protest and a member of the Greene County Democratic Party.
Saturday’s protest was part of the national “No Kings” movement, the goal of which is to reject authoritarianism, according to the No Kings website.
The protests were in opposition to military parade in Washington D.C. that recognizes the 250th anniversary of U.S Army. The parade coincided with President Donald Trump’s birthday, who was born June 14, 1946, and it also coincided with Flag Day.
“This reminds me of the Soviet Union,” said Amy Margolin of Medway said about the military parade.
“No Kings is a nationwide day of defiance,“ states the website for the protests.
“I think I would be ashamed if I had to tell my grandkids that this was happening in our country and I did nothing about it,” said Leah Stevenson of Kettering.
For Stevenson, it was important to take advantage of rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.
“We still have free speech. We’re still allowed to gather. We’re still allowed to have opinions...Our country is still a democracy, and our voices can be heard, and we can change the course that we’re on if we don’t agree with,” Stevenson said.
Many people expressed general frustration at federal policies playing out nationally right now.
“The reason all of these people are here is because we’re sick of it. We’re just sick of it,” Gasper said. “The Army was born 250 years ago to fight against a tyrant king, and now we’ve got this wannabe dictator, and people have just had enough.”
The federal immigration enforcement raids that have been happening in California and other states were at the top of people’s minds at the protest, with some fearing how raids could affect people’s lives and businesses.
“They’re snatching people off the street. They’re not giving them due process. They’re throwing them in jails here, around the country,” Gasper said.
Margolin, who lives in Clark County, is worried about how immigration policies could impact the Haitian community in and around Springfield.
“They have established themselves there. They have become a valuable workforce in Clark County,” she said. “...If they can’t become citizens, those companies aren’t going to be able to find employees.”
Margolin was also protesting the federal immigration raids, citing the incidents in March where the U.S. deported more than 200 Venezuelan individuals to El Salvador to be imprisoned in a maximum-security prison.
“What is happening around the country, doing these raids, not even asking if someone is legally in the United States and just rounding people up, that’s not right,” said Margolin, who added she felt the U.S. was headed toward fascism.
“We’re losing our democracy,” Margolin said.
Other attendees were gathering signatures to place an issue on the ballot that would allow Ohioans to vote on Senate Bill 1.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in March signed Senate Bill 1 into Ohio law — a Republican-led higher education bill that will ban diversity, equity or inclusion initiatives as well as faculty strikes at public colleges, among other provisions.
“What we’re hoping to do is put this measure on the November ballot to allow Ohioans, the voters, to decide if we want this law in our constitution,” Margolin said. “...Being careful about what is taught at colleges and universities is not going to help out economy.”
Other people who attended the rally were rattled by the recent news of state lawmakers and their spouses being shot in Minneapolis suburbs in what Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz described as “a politically motivated assassination.”
Democratic former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed in their home in Minneapolis on Saturday, according to the Associated Press.
Minnesota State Sen. John Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, were injured at their home about nine miles away.
“My granddaughter is in Minneapolis. That was the last straw, and I’m heartbroken and angry about the violence in this country,” said Jan Sherman of Centerville.
Other Ohio counties saw crowds conducting “No Kings” protests, including Miami County, where a rally took place at the courthouse.
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