Dave is living his “best life,” with critical help while growing up from the federal Department of Education and now help with the rent from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, along with living expenses from Medicaid and the Social Security Administration, according to Weinstein, who spoke Saturday before perhaps 600 people at Canal Basin Park in Hollidaysburg during the local version of the No Kings rallies held in about 1,800 places nationwide to protest Trump administration policies.

Due to funding cuts that have been proposed or executed, “people like Dave will not have the ability to live their lives to the fullest … if the current tyrannical regime has its way,” Weinstein told the crowd, which stood in front of the park stage in intermittent light rain through several speeches and protest songs, before marching to the borough Post Office and back.

Weinstein is part of Keystone Indivisible of Centre County, which cooperated with Indivisible Blair County and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Blair County to organize the local rally and march, with Blair County Indivisible President Carol Taylor the master of ceremonies.

Thai native Penny Hovan of Altoona came with her daughter.

Mirror photo by William Kibler

Hovan has been watching with trepidation the news about administration raids targeting illegal immigrants — and the administration’s militarized response in Los Angeles to the protests spawned by those raids. Hovan is afraid to watch, but feels she needs to do so, to stay informed, she said after the rally. As a native Asian and U.S. citizen, she doesn’t feel targeted herself so much, but she empathizes with the mostly Hispanic individuals arrested while looking for work at building supply houses, as they merely “try to make a living,” Hovan said.

Speaker Christy Delafield of Centre County is an employee of nonprofits funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), whose operations have been devastated by administration funding cuts.

Delafield took inspiration for her career from her grandmother, Altoona native Ruth Kitstler, founder of the Mid-State Literacy Council, who taught her that “it’s our job to help when we can, even when it’s hard — especially when it’s hard,” Delafield told the group from the stage.

Contrary to administration claims, people have died due to the USAID cuts, said Delafield, citing a conversation she had the previous week with a woman whose child is dead because of them, she said.

And despite administration claims, it targeted programs that were not wasteful, according to Delafield, who cited widespread use of comment boxes at refugee camps and clinics where individuals could express operational concerns, she said. Now those boxes are full of plaintive questions, like “Where did you go?” and “Did our community do something wrong?” and “Is that why you took our doctor away?” she said.

Delafield understands why people question spending that benefits foreigners when there are lots of domestic needs, she said. But international aid was just a tiny fraction of the budget, she said.

Prior to Trump, it seemed the compassion level in the nation was increasing, which was progress, Taylor said.

But with the right’s reaction in recent times to “woke,” empathy seems to be in disfavor, she said. But it’s not actually a bad thing, she stated.

That triggered a play on the ubiquitous Trump slogan, Make America Great Again, from someone in the audience, who shouted, “Make America Good Again.”

Paul Deemer of Hollidaysburg is a lifelong conservative Republican who doesn’t support the Trump administration.

“(The president) is trying to break the country and trying to install himself as a fascist dictator,” Deemer said after the event.

“I’m dismayed and, frankly, disgusted with the way (administration officials) have conducted themselves,” said Deemer’s wife, Melody.

The Deemers’ attitude toward the administration is at odds with that of some acquaintances, with whom they tend not to discuss those differences.

Paul is “kind of old-school” about that sort of thing — preferring to shun talk of religion and politics, except with people to whom he’s close, he said.

Melody doesn’t try to hide her opinions on the matter, because she’s unwilling to be seen as supportive of Trump, she said.

But it’s not a subject of conversation with her Trump-supportive mother and sisters, by tacit mutual agreement, she said.

She “doesn’t want to drive a wedge,” she said.

She’d have liked to go on Facebook to discuss the rally, but refrained, not wanting “to be seen as antagonistic,” she said.

Nina Sweeney of Bedford felt “like I had to do something,” she said, explaining why she came to the rally with her husband, Bill, and their friend, Cheryl Veith, also of Bedford.

“We’re sliding into autocracy,” Bill said.

“It’s a scary time for us,” as Democrats in the middle of a red region, Nina said.

Veith is a Quaker — not by birth, but by conversion, due to extensive contact with Quakers in Bucks County.

It’s the responsibility of good Quakers to summon courage to “speak truth to power” — though “without malice,” Veith said.

“No one knew it would be a safe place today,” Veith said, when asked to elaborate on the need for courage in the context of Saturday’s event.

Early on, Taylor had cautioned the crowd.

“If someone is heckling you, trying to get you angry, just walk away,” she said. “We will not entangle ourselves with people who wish to destroy our movement.”

Rod Barr came to the park as a counter protester with two others.

He carried a large Trump flag.

His intention was to “support our president, peacefully,” and to say nothing, he said.

However, he was the target of insults, he said.

“Lots of middle fingers and name-calling,” he said.

Those names included “racist,” “killer,” fascists” and “haters,” he said.

“I never said the first word,” he said.

“You’re supposed to be a party of peace,” he replied to at least one such insult, he said.

A couple blocks from the park, in a residential area, a man from Duncansville who declined to give his name was carrying an AR-15 rifle and wearing a mask with the cartoon image of a mouth.

He has family and friends in the neighborhood and was there to protect them, just in case, he said.

He had worried because “at the last protest, we ran into complications,” he said, presumably referring to the “Hands Off” protest in Altoona in early April.

“The cops can only do so much,” he said.

He was pleased at the peaceful nature of Saturday’s event, he said.

“Everyone has the right to protest — like I have every right to carry this weapon,” he said.

A couple people walked up to him Saturday and asked if the gun was real, the man said.

“I am here to be peaceful,” he said.

It’s the “kaleidoscope” of diversity that makes America great, Taylor said during the rally. “What happens when you throw a rock at it?” she asked rhetorically, referring to administration attacks on diversity. “It’s no longer beautiful,” she stated.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.