(C) Ohio Capital Journal
This story was originally published by Ohio Capital Journal and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
In Ohio protests, anti-Trump groups want people to show what they stand for • Ohio Capital Journal [1]
['Marty Schladen', 'More From Author', '- August', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width']
Date: 2025-08-06
As the second Trump administration grinds into its seventh controversial month, groups organizing protests in Ohio want people to turn out and show their opposition. But they also want people to show what they support.
That was true in a relatively small demonstration outside the Ohio Statehouse on Saturday. The same principle will be a big part of a much more ambitious rally planned for this coming Saturday.
This past weekend, hundreds gathered along High Street on the west side of the Capitol as they often have since President Donald Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20. Passing cars honked in support.
Protesters held up signs decrying Trump’s decimation of federal agencies, attempts at mass deportation, fights with universities over free speech, deep tax cuts for the richest Americans, and even deeper cuts to medical and food support to the poor.
Matt Six drove down from Cleveland to participate. He slammed Ohio’s Republican U.S. senators, whom he said were ignoring their constituents while showing their fealty to Trump.
“I don’t think Jon Husted or Bernie Moreno are in touch with everybody, and they’re just running whatever the president tells them to run,” he said. “It’s inappropriate.”
Six said he also drove down to Columbus to show people who aren’t happy with the Trump administration that they’re not alone. He said he wanted to feel like he was doing something positive instead of just moaning and groaning.
He pointed to the boxes of food and school supplies organizers gathered as part of the event, and noted that protesters were trying to help already-poor families who are facing further losses.
It was part of a “National Day of Action” sponsored by the group 50501.
“Today, the American people harnessed their rage to generate community action,” Sarah Park, a 50501 national partner, said in a written statement. “Whether they shut down an ICE detention center or ran a school supply drive, each community found a way to band together against oppression and authoritarianism.”
The demonstration at the Ohio Statehouse was significantly smaller than some of its predecessors — including one on April 5 that drew an estimated 5,000.
Mia Lewis of Indivisible Central Ohio didn’t organize Saturday’s event. But she said there are lots of reasons why every protest can’t be bigger than all the ones that came before.
“We’re in for a long-haul,” she said. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and not everybody can do everything. It’s the summer, and people are traveling, etc. Sometimes there will be more organizations and sometimes there will be fewer. Sometimes it’s the number of national organizations that have come together to promote an event at the same time.”
Lewis added that organizers are trying to decentralize protests so they’re not always in the same places.
Organizers “want people to see that people are protesting in their neighborhood,” Lewis said. “So there’s a protest in Reynoldsburg or Chillicothe or wherever.”
Lewis said an emphasis behind Saturday’s events was to “help out in your community. Go and volunteer somewhere or donate to a food pantry. Give school supplies. I think people care about that. We’re not just against this and that. We’re also for a lot of things, and we’re for helping our community deal with the impact of some of these terrible things that are coming down from the Trump administration.”
This coming Saturday, Lewis and other organizers hope big numbers will come out to show what they oppose and what they’re trying to defend.
With Hands Along High Street, organizers want protesters to line the west side of the artery from its intersection with state Route 161 eight miles south to downtown Columbus.
The protest will run from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., and Lewis said that at one point, protesters will put down their signs and link hands. She estimated that 5,000 protesters are required to line the route.
There’s a two-step process to sign up for the event as organizers try to deploy protesters along the entire stretch.
Lewis said the purpose of the protest is twofold.
“Hopefully, we’ll build toward something. We’re not just saying, ‘Come out and hold a sign and protest,'” she said. “We want to show people that we’re still here. We still care. Just because this torrent of bad things is happening doesn’t mean we’ve accepted it — that we’ve quit or given up on America. But we also want to get the people who sign up to call their congressman, to get them to take an action in the future, and to be part of pushing back against what’s happening.”
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/08/06/ohio-protests/
Published and (C) by Ohio Capital Journal
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/ohiocapitaljournal/
