Anti-Trump Walk Avoids Confrontation

OCEAN CITY – On a warm, sunny if blustery Presidents Day morning, critics of President Donald Trump packed the pedestrian walkway of the Route 52 Causeway for an informal public gathering. 
Suzanne Forrest, a retired teacher and Ocean City resident who launched the event, mostly through social media, said she didn’t want to call it a march or a protest. 
“I wanted to avoid anything that might come across as confrontational or adversarial,” she said. “We’re a kind group of people.”
So while events around the country organized around #NotMyPresidentsDay, Forrest said she and the others who participated did not want to seem to be attacking supporters of Trump, people she says they’ll need to convince if they hope to change anything.
“We don’t want to attack anyone. Those are the people who might change their minds about Trump and the people he’s put in charge,” she said.
Similarly, they called Feb. 20 a “walk” or a “stroll” while they made their way on the wide pedestrian way from the foot of the bridge at Ninth Street to the fishing pier about halfway to Somers Point.
Asked for more detail about her objections to a president who’s been in office just shy of a month, Forrest pointed to Scott Pruitt, recently confirmed to head the Environmental Protection Agency, and Betsy DeVos, approved as Secretary of Education. 
Supporters have argued that Pruitt will scale back what they saw as the agency’s overreach under President Obama, but he had been a prominent critic of the agency he now runs.
Forrest complained that while DeVos advocated for school choice, she had no involvement in public education before her nomination.
Other participants were blunt.
“I’m just through with Trump. I’ve had enough,” said Anne Glapion of Egg Harbor Township, holding a sign that read “Don’t Believe Alt-Truth.”
Jim McManus of Ocean City, in a pink Ocean City Fire Department t-shirt and participating with his wife, Diane, compared the anti-Trump movement to the student protests of the 1960s, when the couple opposed the Vietnam War. He sees the current situation as more dangerous, he said.
“The man is not sane,” he said of Trump, comparing him to President Nixon, a man he opposed but believed to be a competent legislator. “He’s reckless, and he’s surrounded himself with sycophants,” he added.
While many of the participants could remember the 1960s, there were a few younger people out with handmade signs and a few who brought their children.
Most wore pink, an echo of the huge Women’s March on Washington and in cities across the country the day after Trump’s inauguration. Almost everyone carried American flags, which some participants handed out at the start.
Kathleen Woodring of Ocean City counted 62 people participating. “But we’ll say it’s a thousand,” she said, a joking reference to Trump’s inauguration, in which even estimates of the crowd size proved controversial.
With another unseasonably warm day on a busy holiday weekend in the resort, several joggers and bicyclists were already using the pedestrian area of the bridge.
At least one walker received an embrace from a jogger.
Several passing drivers honked or yelled support, while a couple of others made clear they did not support the walkers.
At least one presented a rude gesture when passing.
While the group was on its way back, an Ocean City police car passed. The officer smiled and waved with the window down but didn’t stop.
Earlier, a bald eagle circled overhead before climbing out of sight, drawing cheers from those who spotted it.
While still rare, eagles have become more common along the Jersey shore.
Forrest said the event came together through South Jersey Connection to Action, one of about five small organizations in Cape May and Atlantic counties that grew from the Women’s March.
The groups have begun meeting regularly, with a focus on engaging elected representatives on several issues, including health care.
To contact Bill Barlow, email bbarlow@cmcherald.com.