"No kings."
That was the fundamental sentiment shared by protestors across the U.S. on Saturday, including in Northeast and Central Pennsylvania.
Rallies in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre drew over a thousand people between them to march during what activist groups dubbed “No Kings Day,” organizers said.
The demonstrations were in response to the American military parade requested by President Donald Trump to honor the Army’s 250th anniversary on what also was the president’s 79th birthday and Flag Day.
But the demonstrators also took aim at the Trump administration's broader policies, including increased immigration enforcement, proposed cuts to social service funding, and moves to curtail rights for women and LGBTQA+ communities.
"I am appalled by what's going on in our country today, in so many respects," said Scranton resident Elizabeth Field, a U.S. Army veteran who is disabled.
No Kings Day rallies also were held in Lewisburg, Bloomsburg, Williamsport, Tunkhannock and Honesdale.
People of all ages waved American flags — some held upside down, a distress signal sometimes used by sailors.
Many who spoke with WVIA say they believe democracy is at risk.
Others, however, turned out to push back against demonstrators in defense of Trump.
'We're going to fight for you every single day'
By noon, the Washington Avenue side of Lackawanna County Courthouse Square in Scranton was packed with protestors. A small group of Trump supporters stood across the street.
One sign read “Deporting families? Start here.” Below was a photo of the president’s family.
Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan started to speak into a microphone at a podium placed on Courthouse Square.
The speaker wasn’t loud enough, so he pulled out a megaphone.
"Today I'm not speaking to you as a public official, but as an American with a conscience. I'm speaking to you today as a husband and a father of five young children, as the great-grandson of Irish immigrants, as someone who believes that this country ought to be a beacon of liberty, not a machinery of fear," he said.
The Democrat called Trump “a man with no moral compass, a rapist, a liar and a felon.”
He asked the crowd to remember that “history does not look kindly on those who stay silent.”
"Today in Scranton, we are speaking out because they're coming for our immigrant brothers and sisters,” Gaughan said.
Later he said: “To the immigrant families in Scranton and in Lackawanna County and who may be watching this or here today listening to this, you are not alone. We see you and we love you, and we're going to fight for you every single day.”
Listening in the audience was Field, who said she enlisted in the Army because she is a proud American who wanted to serve her country.
She carried a bright green sign proclaiming that she did not want to celebrate the Army's anniversary with "a pig."
Field said she felt Trump lied when he recently spoke at Fort Bragg, N.C. According to the Associated Press, Trump called protesters in Los Angeles “animals” and “a foreign enemy” during that speech, and defended deploying the military on demonstrators opposed to his immigration enforcement raids.
"It makes me sick to see how he manipulates our military," Field said.
Tori Hernandez came from Danville to protest with her friend Gabriela Martinez, who lives in Scranton.
Martinez said she protested to represent those who have no voice. She said it's "painful" to see people in her country at odds with each other.
"I feel like that's the only word I could use to describe … because I'm caring for the future of my nephews, for the future kids that I want to have, for like, those that have no voice,” she said.
Hernandez added: “We're here because human rights is just, it's pure decency.”
A smaller group of protestors returned to the square after 7 p.m. They marched around the courthouse and chanted.
Protest, counter-protest in Wilkes-Barre
In downtown Wilkes-Barre during the afternoon, Sue Heckman blew a red whistle.
"It's a protest strategy to drown them out," she said.
Heckman was referring to about a dozen Trump supporters who showed their support for the president across public square on the corner of South Main Street.
The two groups heckled each other throughout the day. Wilkes-Barre City Police at one point closed off the road and began enforcing people to stay on the sidewalks. The No Kings group started chanting "Back the Blue."
Heckman said she’s had enough. She went to the Women’s March in 2017 after Trump's first inauguration. She said, then, she knew Trump was going to be what she called a “disaster.”
"And the very fact that we have to endure round two, where he is completely out of control, no guardrails, surrounded himself with sycophants who will not stop his aggressive, racist, selfish agenda is ... it's ... I just can't," she said.
For Heckman, losing friends and family because of political divides is what upsets her most.
"It's not right or left, it's not Democrat or Republican. It's right and wrong, and everything about this is wrong, and this is, this is what he has stoked in our country," she said.
Lois Noble from Luzerne County's Back Mountain came to the Wilkes-Barre rally with "Joan Osborne."
Joan started out as a scarecrow but Noble brought her out to the protest specially dressed in a red robe with a white bonnet.
In Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” about a totalitarian America, fertile women are forced to wear Joan’s look as a uniform. They are enslaved to bear children for the ruling class.
Two American flags were bungied around Joan to complete the ensemble.
"Because we care about liberty, women's rights, human rights," Noble said.
Noble, a quilter, also held up a patchwork peace sign. She called it “craftivism.”
"We're stronger because of our diversity, obviously, we’re a nation of immigrants," she said.
Brittany Bradford grew up in Northeast Pennsylvania but now lives in Central Pennsylvania. Her sign read: “protest is patriotic.”
"I wanted to make a point that being out here and hoping for the best for our country by wanting change and freedom for everybody in this country is patriotism," she said. "It is being patriotic. It's not going against the country. It's fighting for the country we think it can be.”
Tabetha Lepine is an educator and drag king who goes by the name “Justice.”
"I work with kids, and I have watched our funding be cut, and I have watched children struggle, and I have watched my friends fear for their life," she said, starting to tear up. "I have friends who are trans, they can't get their meds anymore, and I prefer to stand up and say something and keep my friends and my kids safe than sit by quietly and let the world fall apart.”
TJ Fitzgerald stood with the Trump supporters. He wore a red blazer and represented his group, NEPA Republicans.
Fitzgerald said he came out to support America and to "stop the lies."
"They're saying that there's a king, there's never gonna be a king. That's a lie," he said.
He said another lie is that Medicaid is going to be eliminated.
"What they're doing is going to keep the Medicaid for the people that deserve it and earn it, and Americans, and they're gonna try to stop the fraud," he said.
The U.S. Congress is considering major changes to the program, including proposing increased frequency of eligibility checks as well as requiring states to put in place work requirements, according to NPR.
Fitzgerald also alleged that many of the protestors who turned out were paid.
Megan Kocher is from Plymouth. She helped organize the protest with the Blue Hat Ladies and Rural Organizing.
WVIA asked Kocher if there were paid protestors at the rally.
"That's crazy," she said.
She turned to two people standing near her and asked if they were getting paid to be there.
They laughed and said "no."
"We're not getting paid to be here. Who has the money to pay all of us, except for their friend, Elon Musk," she said of Republicans.
Kocher said she expected a couple hundred people to show up, not a thousand.
"I think it says that, you know, they've gone too far," she said. "I think it shows that, you know, we're waking up as a country and that we're going to fight back peacefully, to show that we don't want kings, we don't want dictators. We just want peace and we want people to be taken care of. We want community.”
