Veteran John Taylor of Akron, 65, stood in the pedestrian traffic island on West Market Street and waved a large American flag as vehicles whizzed by on Saturday afternoon, recalling how his parents Nettie and John marched in the same streets for civil rights in the 1960s.
“They did the same thing that I’m doing right now, so it’s in my blood,” Taylor said, as the sound of constant and supportive car horns blared throughout the Wallhaven neighborhood. “They stood in lines, they marched, they knocked on doors, they protested and they won their civil rights. Now the government is trying to take away all that work that my parents did.”
Taylor, donning a red U.S. Marines hat and t-shirt, was protesting the Trump administration’s mass layoffs at the Department of Veterans Affairs and cuts to other programs for veterans. He’s also concerned about the future of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and about his modest investments in the wake of the stock market selloff that followed the announcment of new tariffs.
“Who are they doing it for?” Taylor said of the Trump administration. “For the rich man — the rich people, the billionaires.”
Taylor was one of around a thousand Akronites who flocked to Hardesty Park in conjunction with more than a thousand “Hands Off!” rallies in all 50 states in what the Associated Press called “the biggest day of demonstrations yet by an opposition movement trying to regain its momentum after the shock of the Republican’s first weeks in office.”
For several hours, protesters lined several blocks of West Market Street, waving flags, holding signs and chanting slogans critical of Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the federal government. The local rally was organized by Indivisible Akron and Akron Democracy Defenders.
Beth Vild held a megaphone in one hand — she led anti-racist chants — and held the handlebar of her child’s stroller in the other. An environmental and health equity community organizer, Vild said she’s been on Medicaid after giving birth and that her parents get by through Medicare and Social Security.
“These are programs I fought for my whole life, I fought for the EPA my entire life, only to see them ripped apart and to see facism take over this country,” Vild said.
Akronite Jamie Keaton credits diversity, equity and inclusion efforts for their schooling and career successes.
“The mere fact that that’s something that’s been strategically dismantled is why I have to be here — it’s just as simple as that.”
Protesters hope enthusiasm leads to increased action
Vild and Keaton both said they were happy with the turnout but hope the enthusiasm leads to increased local action and not, as Vild said, “when it’s just popular on CNN.”
“It’s very easy for people to come out and protest, but it also means it needs to translate to the work outside of the protest,” Keaton said. “The door knocking, the phone banking — things that will make a difference locally that will translate federally.”
Self-described “flag geek” Tim Meyer lined West Market Street and waved a flag he made two decades ago. Meyer’s design adapts the Flag of Easton, inverting the stars and bars seen on the American flag. He was flying the flag upside down, which is a symbol of distress.
“It’s turned upside down right now because I think we’re in an emergency, a double emergency more than what the American flag upside down would indicate,” Meyer said. “Everything is going so wrong, our country is being destroyed so rapidly. Even if we turn things around, there’s so much that has already been broken, like relations with other countries. Canada of all places – why turn on Canada? And just all the government services that are being destroyed all for the benefit of a few ultra-rich people, that’s just so wrong. We have to stand up and push back.”
Local elected officials speak
Akron Mayor Shammas Malik, State Sen. Casey Weinstein and State Rep. Veronica Sims spoke at the picnic shelter in Hardesty Park as hundreds of people gathered around.
Malik — interrupted by people calling for Officer Davon Fields to be fired — said that the city government “is here for you” and that the city’s “values are not changing.” Malik defended diversity as a strength and said diversity and merit-based hiring aren’t mutually exclusive.
The mayor said 10% of the city’s budget comes from the federal government and that they “have to work with” politicians in Columbus and Washington, D.C., “… but we need a state government and a federal government that works with us.”
Weinstein was enthusiastic about the crowd, comparing it to resistance fighters in the Star Wars franchise. The state senator said, to loud cheers, “It’s not OK to come after” veterans, libraries, Medicaid and Medicare, Social Security, vaccines and immigrants.
Sims urged attendees to take care of themselves — using the airplane oxygen mask analogy — so they can keep up the effort in the long term.
“We must continue to rise to fight to help ensure that not only is democracy left for us, but for our children and our children’s children,” Sims said. “We must continue to fight against the manufactured domestic chaos.”
