Rural America Speaks Out: Mt. Shasta’s ‘Hands Off’ Demonstration Draws Hundreds

Hands Off, a protest rally across the nation held on April 5th was one of the largest one-day displays of public resistance against the second administration of President Donald Trump and his billionaire advisor Elon Musk.

There were around 1,200 demonstrations throughout the 50 US states. In Siskiyou County, there were two protests; one held in Yreka, and one in Mt. Shasta. While there were a few Trump supporters that showed up in Yreka peacefully carrying signs, only advocates that oppose the government, healthcare, and education cuts, immigration crackdown, tariffs, and sacrificing the needs of working families displayed  their disapproval in Mt. Shasta on the corners of Lake Blvd and Mt. Shasta Blvd. An estimate of over 600 people participated in this peaceful demonstration, chanting and carrying their homemade signs in downtown Mt. Shasta.

C H A R O N, J O L L I F F who was one of the organizers of this Mt. Shasta event said, “I’ve been living in Mount Shasta City since 2004. I’m not associated with any organization. I’ve become concerned when I see that these federal cuts may make living here in my Shasta City or Siskiyou County extremely difficult. cuts to Medicare and Medicaid include 43% of our population getting Medicaid and I’m not sure what the number is for Medicare, but our hospitals; how will they function with these drastic cuts? 
Will they even stay open? Will we have full hospital service up here? The cuts to the forest service and the stoppage of fire mitigation at this time of what’s gonna happen when there is an inevitable forest fire? 
No FEMA? I mean, these cuts make living up here, which has been many people’s retirement dream, absolutely not achievable. 

Patty Crossen who helped with this demonstration said, ”We want to take back America. No political affiliation and no violence. We just want people to come out and show that we, the people, have power, not fear.”

Carolyn Glenn from McCloud said, “I’ve always kept my political beliefs to myself and been tolerant of the beliefs of others. Finally, I understood that I couldn’t do this any longer. I came to this event to stand in support of the Constitution. We were founded on the principle of 3 branches of government with checks and balances. That’s not what’s happening in our new government. The President is issuing executive orders that are not legal and then defying the lower court’s injunctions. It’s not easy being a democracy. Sometimes we don’t get what we want but I believe in the democratic process. I will keep attending these events until we get back to following the Constitution and Bill of Rights. At some point, everyone will be impacted in some way so I hope to help stop this before it is too late.”

Joshua Worthington drove over from Burney to show his support in the Hands Off rally. He said, “In 2022, I was in school, and I had a professor in one of my classrooms who looked visually very afraid, and I didn’t get it at the time, but now I see, you know, two years later, what he (the Trump administration) is doing to our university systems and what he’s doing to defund them and how he’s threatening them and how  he’s intimidating educators. And I think it’s pathetic and disgusting. I hate it. 
It’s not okay. So I’m here to protest in support of my educators and in support of our universities and in support of science. Thank you.”

Patricia Lord expresses her views by saying, “I want everyone in our county to be gainfully employed regardless what their political party/belief is. On March 23rd, we protested in front of the Post Office to protest against cuts. It was a pre-empted protest. People wanted to make it clear to not make changes to our postal system.”

Lori Doro wore a shirt from Trump’s first administration that read, ‘Think while it is still legal’ 

She said, “I didn’t think that I would ever have to break out this shirt again. It sucks that my granddaughter has less rights than I have.” 

Denese Stienstra said, “If we stay silent, we may be looked upon as agreeing. Silence may be misconstrued. This is the first time in my life that I have done this (to protest) and I am doing this for my granddaughter. She deserves much better and so do we.” 

Greg Dinger handed out handmade keychains by Donna Thomas that held the name and date of this historic event. 

Along with carrying signs, some people also dressed up for the demonstration with colorful costumes or expressive sayings on t-shirts. People wore red, white and blue and carried the American flag. Some people chanted “Hey hey. ho ho, Elon Musk has got to go.”

Narcissa Sumers showed up with a broken arm in a sling. Someone gave her a sign to hold. She said, “I am so happy for this wonderful turnout. It is a very positive show for our caring community.”