Several groups from Delta County joined the “Not my President” rally held Monday in Grand Junction at City Hall. KVNF's Lisa Young spoke with Ruth Marion as the rally was taking place.
Ruth Marion: You've got people on all four corners of the intersection and they're facing in towards the center of the intersection and, you know, just like showing their posters to the drivers. And there have been a lot of drivers who have signaled their support with blowing their horns. And just a couple, um, blowing their horns and then, you know, giving us the finger or whatever.
Lisa Young : Ruth, I do have a question for you. I mean this is happening on President's Day. This just feels like this is really something that's an anomaly that people don't typically do this on President's Day. Tell me why it's happening this way.
Marion: Number one, I would say it draws attention to how upset people are and outraged and offended by what's going on in our presidency. And they feel the need to speak up about it and not let what's going on happened. So there are a lot of, people have a lot of different reasons why they are objecting, right? So it has to do with what Musk is doing with Doge. People feel like that is absolutely wrong and unlawful. And in terms of President's Day, the title of this event is "Not my President", so comparing the president we have now with the presidents whose honor this day is all about. It's a really stark contrast and it's something that leaves people feeling outraged and offended and like they must do something.
Young: I heard that the GOP the Republicans were going to have something similar, but are, are you having any counter protests there or, or is there anybody other than people flipping you off?
Marion: Uh, no, it's just a couple people flipping us off. Otherwise, a tremendous amount of support. I mean, there are so many cars. That are, you know, raising their fists like, 'yes'. I mean, that's the vast majority. It's amazing and I kind of wonder, you know, are they purposely coming here to do that or are they just downtown having, you know, going out to lunch or doing business and then, you know, decide and then just happen to come this way. I don't, I don't know. Here's another sign, 'Veterans against Trump'. 'Deport Musk.' One young woman has a sign that says "Deport 'Musk to Mars.' There's a sign that says 'Defend Democracy and Human Rights.'
Young: Are there any official speakers, anybody taking a platform to speak or is this grassroots?
Marion: No, it's very grassroots. It's really a number of organizations that have made this happen. Most of it is grassroots online-based organizations like mobilize.us. There's a new one called "We the People Dissent" and then Indivisible on every level, national, state, and local is very involved in this event. So it's really kind of, you know, coalitions building among the grassroots organizations.
