Residents Rally Against Fascism In Orleans

ORLEANS – Walking along Rock Harbor Road Saturday in direction of the Orleans Rotary, the sound of car horns flooded the air. For Norma Brockman, it was music to her ears.

 “We have more beeps of support than fingers today than ever,” said Brockman, a member of Nauset Citizens Alliance and Good Trouble Cape Cod. “I think the worm is turning.”

 The two organizations banded together to host a Stand Against Fascism rally on the rotary Saturday afternoon, a precursor to larger “No Kings” demonstrations planned locally and across the country on Oct. 18.

 Demonstrators hoisted signs denouncing fascism and many Trump administration policies, including the treatment of immigrants (and in some cases legal citizens) by officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Others sported signs denouncing voter suppression as well as the administration’s attempts at silencing media and politically weaponizing the National Guard.

 “It’s cruelty and stupidity on steroids,” Brockman said.

 “This is disgusting what’s happening,” said Denise Puffer of Wellfleet. “And this ‘Make America Great Again’ is such b.s. It’s terrible.”

 Puffer said her activism first took shape through her involvement with the nonprofit Indivisible Outer Cape. Today, she said, as long as she’s in town, she uses her voice and right to protest whenever she can.

 “It’s not like none of us have anything else to do, but we have to do this,” she said. “I have to be here. As long as I’m in town, I’m here.”

 Asked what brought her out to Saturday’s rally, Janine Corsano of Orleans said “my fear for the country.”

 “It seems like everyday you wake up it’s another nightmare, another assault against democracy,” she said. “It’s just incredible. It’s mindboggling to me.”

 But attendees of Saturday’s protest said there’s power and comfort in finding others in the community who share their concerns over the current social and political climate. They also got some positive affirmation from motorists, many of whom honked horns and gave thumbs up in support of their efforts.

 “When you’re with likeminded people, it gives you a little more faith in our country,” Puffer said. “I’m hopeful. I’m thinking that maybe the tides will turn and people will finally get together.”

 “All we’re doing is holding signs,” Corsano said. “And if it inspires other people to come out and hold signs, we need that.”

 Thousands of No Kings 2 protests are planned across the country Saturday. On the Cape, protests are slated for Provincetown, Hyannis, Falmouth, at the Salt Pond Visitors Center in Eastham and at the Unitarian Universalist Meetinghouse lawn in Chatham.

 The Chatham rally will be held from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Organizers Mary Byrne and Evan Howard said in an email that the event is a “non-partisan expression of concern with the consolidation of power in the executive branch and the ways in which it’s being exercised.”

The Drumma Queens will perform to “keep the mood positive and energetic,” they said. Participants are urged to bring flags and instruments. “Silence has never saved anyone,” they said.

Participants should park at the community center or Oyster Pond and not at the Chatham Village Market-CVS parking lot.