Local residents speak up for democracy in "Hands Off!" rally
Protesters call Trump "a fraud" and express fear he's turning nation into an oligarchy
People are furious at President Donald Trump and his unelected but extravagantly empowered friend Elon Musk. And they are deeply worried that our democracy and our nation’s once-unassailable stature as a global leader are crumbling before our eyes. That was the message I got during the Hands Off! rally in Culpeper on Saturday afternoon (April 5).
Several hundred demonstrators, including a goodly number from Orange County, lined the sidewalks in strategic locations around the downtown. Old, young and middle-aged, they waved signs announcing, “A Draft Dodger Sleeps in the White House While Homeless Vets Sleep in the Streets!” and “So Bad Even Introverts Are Here” and “Hands Off My Life! My Rights! My Country!” and “Equality Hurts No One.”
They were part of Saturday’s nationwide “Hands Off!” peaceful protest opposing President Trump’s avalanche of chaos-inducing executive orders and his economically devastating tariffs. They were also voicing their objections to Musk’s role in abruptly dismissing vast numbers of federal workers under the aegis of the newly invented Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
After I parked near the Amtrak train station around 1:30 p.m., I encountered a few dozen protesters near the iconic LOVE sign, including a group from Lake of the Woods. LOW resident Tracy Jacobson (whose sign read “IKEA has smarter cabinets”) told me she’d come to the rally “to fight for democracy and fight for my children’s and grandchildren's rights.” She said she also was demonstrating in support of all the libraries and museums whose funding Trump has stripped.
A woman named Diane, also of LOW, didn’t want to give me her last name because her husband works for the federal government. She said she’s worried that we may not have freedom of peaceable assembly or freedom of speech “if Trump continues to demolish our rights and principles.” She also said that contrary to Trump’s edicts, she wants her tax dollars to help “hungry kids” here and abroad, and to support national parks.
“I’m 78 and this is my first political protest,” LOW resident Margaret Smith announced to me. The retired educator had come to the rally “because democracy is on the line. There are some things worth standing up for. We’re seeing so many of our rights eroded,” including free speech and access to a wide range of books in libraries.
Sally Twentey: “It’s an oligarchy forming”
Another LOW resident, Sally Twentey, told me she’s lived in Orange County for 30 years and came to the protest for one key reason: “I want my grandkids to grow up in a democracy.” When I asked whether she thought we were at risk of losing our democracy, she replied, “If Trump has his way. It’s an oligarchy forming.”
A few minutes later, Twentey stepped forward again. She looked me in the eye and said there was another reason she was participating in the rally: “I want to stay married.” Her sign read, “Love Out Loud! ‘Love Your Neighbor as Yourself.’”
I also talked with MJ Wooldridge of Rappahannock County, who said that the protest was “a small way for us to get our democracy back because it’s slipping away very quickly. We have to do whatever we can in this short period of time to salvage it.” Wooldridge observed, however, that she believes the erosion of our rights as citizens has been going on for decades, not just since Trump’s second election.
Kelby Sappington: “We’re not going to give up the fight”
I then made my way to Main Street to talk to protesters at the post office and others in front of the Culpeper Democrats’ headquarters. Kelby Sappington, a Culpeper resident, came to the rally due to “everything going on in the past 10 weeks.” She said the actions taken by Trump and Musk are “very isolating and very demoralizing.” For her, the rally was a way to band together with likeminded citizens and show that “we’re not alone. We’re not going to give up the fight.”
When I asked how she felt about Trump’s decision to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, Sappington, a music teacher whose mother lives in Orange County, said, “It guts me.” For families whose children have special needs, she said that if individual schools don’t uphold the rights of those children to get an education, “parents won’t have anywhere to turn to.” And given the current shortage of qualified teachers, she said that Trump’s disruptive actions will make it “harder and harder to recruit” teachers and lead to an even greater shortage.
Also standing along the sidewalk near the post office was the Rev. John Storey of Madison, who said he was surprised by all the drivers honking their horns in solidarity with the protesters. When I inquired about his view of our current president, he had a ready answer: “I detest and despise him. I always have.”
A woman from a nearby county (who didn’t want to be identified) was one of the younger protesters I spoke to. “I’m worried for my generation. We’re fed so much propaganda,” she said, that it’s hard to know what’s true and what’s not. She said she’s also very concerned about “the divide between men and women of my generation.”
As for Trump? She responded bluntly, “He’s a liar. He’s a fraud. He’s a fascist.”
Sammy Wylie: “It’s not patriotic to cast our veterans to one side”
I also caught up with Sammy Wylie of Orange. He commented on what he perceives as the nation’s “general sense of apathy,” with many people feeling helpless, as if “they can’t engage the mechanisms of democracy to restore what’s being taken away from us. … By the time people wake up and realize what’s happening to them, it may be too late.”
The protest rally offered a way to wake up and speak up. Wylie’s sign showed his support for veterans, whom he feels Trump has treated shabbily. “It’s not patriotic to cast our veterans to one side,” he said. “Anyone who does that is not a patriot in my book.”
Pam Jaske: Trump “doesn’t want to be questioned or have anyone say anything he disagrees with”
After I finished talking to Wylie, Pam Jaske of Rapidan came over for a chat. She was participating in the rally “because I feel strongly about the Constitution and the rule of law, and our current president ignores both.”
As for Trump’s tariffs, she said it was absurd of him to place tariffs on islands occupied solely by penguins. “We’re governed by a man who doesn’t think,” she concluded.
I asked her what kind of future she foresees for young people in the U.S. “There’s the potential for them to be looking at far less freedom than we’ve had,” she said. “Trump obviously wants to be an autocrat. He doesn’t want to be questioned or have anyone say anything he disagrees with. That’s a dangerous situation.”
James Baldwin: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but …”
Protesters told me that many people driving by honked their horns and waved in solidarity, but there were some MAGA devotees who lifted middle fingers or called out vulgar comments. One person said a driver angling to park in front of the post office, near a large group of protesters, had done so in an aggressive, threatening manner. And while I was standing on Main Street, I heard “Dixie,” originally a minstrel song, briefly blasting from a passing vehicle.
As I was walking back to my car after the rally ended, I paused to look at the parking-lot mural emblazoned with a quote from the American novelist and essayist James Baldwin: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” On Saturday, the “Hands Off!” rally participants did what Baldwin recommended and faced the nation’s problems head-on. It remains to be seen whether we’ll experience the kind of democracy-assuring change that so many of us want.
This video captures the spirit of the “Hands Off!” rally on April 5, 2025, in downtown Culpeper. Signs like “Honk if you love democracy!” encouraged drivers to express their support. Video by Hilary Holladay.
Betsy Brantley shines in “The Trip to Bountiful”
What a treat it was to see Orange County’s own Betsy Brantley last night (April 5) starring in the Live Arts production of “The Trip to Bountiful.” Directed by Live Arts Artistic Director Susan E. Evans, the play runs through April 12 at the Charlottesville theater but is sold out.
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