Peaceful Dissent Over Immigration

CAPE MAY – In over 750 locations nationwide June 30 Americans turned out to peacefully protest against the Trump Administration’s immigration policies. 
One of those rallies drew 120 people to the Washington Street Mall. It was part of the “families belong together” national day of action.
Failure to secure a permit for the quickly organized event meant that the organizers structured it as a free-speech vigil.
Individuals gathered at the Washington Street entrance to the mall area and held signs that made their political position clear regarding the government’s zero-tolerance policy that has separated children and parents at the nation’s border.
For Mike and Vickie James of Bordentown and their young children Ella and Rhyland, participation required that they have a “talk with the kids about why we were here,” Mike said. “That was a difficult conversation.” The James family had been on a camping vacation.
Patricia Dollinger O’Sullivan walked from her home on Lafayette Street to oppose policies she found “heartbreaking.”
Doreen Smith spends a week in Cape May annually from her home in Albany, N.Y. 
“I like to believe that I have a sense of what is just,” said Smith. She spoke of the president as a “man of injustice” who provoked in her “grave concerns about our future.”
Signs attacking the administration’s immigration policy mixed with more generic ones against “Trumpocracy.” Yet, the focus never left the plight of young children separated from their parents by government policy.
Local Cape May resident Denise Heckel spoke of her half-Guatemalan granddaughter in Florida as she decried using “children as pawns for political advantage.”
Heckel held her heart as she said, “My granddaughter was born here, but I cannot help but think of what could have happened to her.”
Nancy Moncrief from North Jersey with a residence in North Wildwood spoke of her German heritage. She talked of relatives who fled Hitler’s rise in the 1930s.
Moncrief wore a hat with the words, “I care, do you?”
A 30-year-old wearing the name tag Hannah has been coming to Cape May since she was 1-year-old. “I am from New York, but this is like home to me,” she said.
She was at the rally because, in her eyes, the country’s values were under attack. “This is not who we are,” she said.
From New York City came Alex and Rebecca Kostychenko who own a summer residence in Court House. Other visitors to the area made their homes in Missouri, in Colorado, in Maryland and New York.
Locals came from Upper Township, West Cape May, North Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, and North Cape May, as well as from Cape May.
Honking horns and cheers from passing motorists testified to support from those less willing to take time from their summer on a hot Saturday at 6 p.m. No counter protest was visible.
Organizers, who had pulled the event together in less than a week, said the turnout exceeded expectations.
Three police officers stood at the edges of the crowd, but this was not a day for marches. There were no speakers to excite emotions.
This was a quiet protest by Americans who differ with the actions of their government.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.