By Calvin Pynn, contributor
Harrisonburg’s version of Saturday’s “Hands Off” rally — aimed at protesting President Donald Trump’s agenda — attracted more than 400 people to Court Square, many of whom carried signs and chanted to vent frustration at mass federal layoffs, funding cuts and deportations.
The demonstration was one of more than 1,200 “Hands Off” rallies across all 50 states on Saturday. The movement seeks to push back against the policies and actions of the second Trump administration, as well as tech billionaire Elon Musk’s role in Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” or DOGE.
Molly Goldsmith, an Army veteran and former elections worker, told The Citizen that she felt compelled to participate Saturday as a way to channel her fear and frustration.
“I dip in and out of what I’m reading because I get slightly terrified. It scares me,” Goldsmith said. “So I just figured, what can I do? And what I could do is I can work with these wonderful women [who organized the rally] and just get a bunch of people together and do what we can do locally here. When you feel like you have no control, like, what can I do? So I had to do something.”
Among the administration’s actions highlighted by signs and chants were Trump’s efforts to shut down agencies like the U.S. Department of Education, layoff of more than 275,000 federal workers, deport immigrants including some with green cards and legal visas, make changes to Social Security, issue executive orders aimed at transgender people and cut funding for health programs and local public health departments.
Goldsmith’s husband, Richard Elias, a retired teacher, said he, too, was disillusioned with what was happening in Washington and how it was filtering into communities like Harrisonburg.
Elias said he’s concerned about the effect of Trump’s policies on services like the Center for Children and Adolescents. He said he worries about the service, especially following the Trump administration’s attempts to cut funding for health programs.
“I can’t even imagine what they’re going through now with the loss of funding and all the lunacy that they’ve got to deal with,” Elias said. “I mean, so many of the kids come in there, they’re on Medicaid or Medicare funding. You know, that’s their entry fee to get in there and get mental health care.”
In Harrisonburg, the recently formed Rockingham-Augusta Indivisible — a branch of the larger progressive Indivisible coalition — organized the protest. More than 150 groups organized the series of rallies across the country.
Local activist Candice Whetzel was one of the event’s main organizers and speakers. She started the Rockingham-Augusta Indivisible after learning that the organization did not have a chapter in the Shenandoah Valley, and was inspired by the congressional staffers who formed Indivisible.
“They saw what was happening in Congress. They saw that the heart of Congress was push things that were not good for the people, and the part of Congress that was supposed to be protecting people was doing nothing,” Whetzel explained. “And they got angry. They got angry that no one stopped the first Trump administration, and then it happened again.”
Indivisible awarded a $1,000 grant to Whetzel to start the local chapter. The group also provides guidance for individuals who want to start grassroots organizations under the organization’s name.
“They created an entire template of how to organize an activism action group so they could hand it out to crazy-ass people like me,” Whetzel said.
During her speeches at the rally, Whetzel condemned the policies of the Trump Administration and GOP, but also criticized inaction from the Democratic Party.
“There are complicit Democrats who are allowing this legislation to be pushed,” Whetzel said. “And so it’s up to us to get loud and get angry, because at the end of the day, it’s still a democracy, and our votes count. So we need to use them.”
Whetzel also called out U.S. Rep. Ben Cline, a Republican who has represented the Valley in Congress since 2019. She criticized Cline’s endorsement of Trump’s agenda and absence from the public between congressional sessions. Since starting his term earlier this year, the congressman has yet to schedule a town hall directly with constituents, except for a meeting with a private group in Harrisonburg last month.
“[Cline] has done just about nothing his entire career as a legislator,” Whetzel said. “The only thing that he has any passion about is abortion bans. Everything else that comes across his desk is ignored. If was truly a representative of the people and he truly wants to help the people, he would read them.”
Alan Boyarsky, of Harrisonburg, told The Citizen following the rally that he, too, is fed up with Cline.
“One of the most disturbing things to me as someone who lives in this district is that he does not represent what I stand for whatsoever,” Boyarsky said. “And he won’t listen to what anybody has to say if they disagree with him.”
Whetzel said the next event the group plans to sponsor will be a town hall event during Congress’ May recess, with a special invitation for Cline.
“He should be home, he should be going out to see his constituents during the recess, that’s the point of it,” Whetzel said. “So, if I provide him with the perfect location, venue paid for, people invited, why can’t he show up?”
She added that, in the meantime, events like the “Hands Off” rallies allow people who live in the 6th Congressional District — which stretches from Roanoke to north of Winchester — to voice their concerns.
“It gets the community involved, it reminds everybody that we are all people,” Whetzel said. “If you’re sitting and you’re just, like, sucking in all of that news and media all day, it’s so detached from you. Even though you see that people are suffering, it’s so detached from you because it’s on a TV. Bringing people together to see one another and to remember what solidarity is and what ‘We, the People’ feels like we have the power if we stand together.”
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