>Handmade signs on cardboard, American flags — Arlingtonians, some in costumes and others wearing crowns — marched round and round Welburn Square peacefully protesting the Trump Administration. Several hundred people joined the nationwide protests on Saturday, Oct. 18 in one of the many local demonstrations. The crowd of 300-400 ranged from babies in snugglies to seniors in wheelchairs and everyone in between.

Jan and Ed Harkness are standing along the side of the square. Jan is holding up a sign that says “Will We Still Have Scientists to Replace Me?“ She explains she is from China. Ed says, “We met in Berlin where she was getting a PhD in agriculture, and I was a diplomat with the State Department.” Jan says, “I’m not really political but we wanted to attend a low-key rally to protest the way Trump has behaved. He is … really destroying American democracy. Now I wonder why I came to America.”

Next to them along the edge of the crowd a small group accompanied by a banjo is singing, “Think of your fellow man, give him a helping hand. Put a little love in your heart.”

Wolin Sky, a resident of The Jefferson retirement community across the street, sits on a bench beside Melanie Ridney. Sky says he is trying to protest what has been destroyed in our democracy. “It’s no longer what it used to be, not even a little bit.”

Ridney says she is there because she is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. “I have 22 ancestors that are connected. My father fought in the Pacific in WWII. I lost an uncle in the war. A lot of people don’t understand what they have here.” She added, “I don’t think any of us knew how tenuous democracy was.”

A dinosaur passes by marching around the square. Soon a protester follows holding up a “Fight Truth Decay” sign along with others, “Immigrants Make America Great Again” and “Melt ICE.”  

Beverly and Bob Johnson, also residents of The Jefferson, estimated they had over 60 participants in today’s demonstration. The Johnsons have come from the protest on the Mall where “there were rivers of people.” Bob is a veteran of the Vietnam War and is appalled by the use of the military in our cities. He says he is not a fan of the Secretary of Defense and his favorite sign on the mall where they had been earlier in the morning today was “Hesketh DUI hire.” 

Beverly says , “We are here protesting the usurpation of our due process, the treatment of immigrants and the weaponization of justice.”