ALAMOSA — A crowd of protesters gathered along State Avenue and Main Street in Alamosa on Monday to express their fear, anger and frustration with actions being taken by the current administration in the weeks since they took office.  

The messages written on signs showed that, while worded differently, people shared the same strong feelings about Elon Musk and the role he’s playing in the government, the mass layoff of federal workers, the undermining of the Constitution and a Congress “failing to do its job.” And, in speaking with the Valley Courier, many others expressed a very real fear that what’s happening is just a harbinger of what’s to come. 

Bob Sarr was protesting because of “the cruelty that’s happening all over the country. There are so many people being impacted. There’s individual cruelty to immigrants - people who are here legally and people who are not here legally. There’s cruelty to federal workers. It needs to come to a dead stop. This is not the way to make change. I’m very disappointed in what the incumbents are doing. I have Republican friends who are mortified, too. So, I’m out here doing this more publicly than I ever have before. I’ve even sent the first emails I’ve ever sent.” 

Yvon Boss, who has never been politically active before, said it was the uncertainty about what’s next that brought her out to the protest. “I know so many seniors who are very scared and so uncertain about their future. It’s really very frightening.” 

Jaisil Gonzalez, who works as a nurse, was protesting because she is concerned about the direction the country is going. “Women should have a choice. I also don’t think we should have to worry about our patients being deported when they’re coming to seek care. We shouldn’t be firing our federal workers. That’s why I’m out here,” she said. “And because I have a two year old daughter. Her not having a choice, her not having rights and, honestly everyone losing their rights. It’s not just women or minorities. If you’re not in that 1 per cent (income bracket), you’re at risk.” 

One man, who declined to give his name, said, “I came out because I read a poem. I didn’t stand for the socialists. I didn’t stand for the trade unions. And now there’s no one to stand for us. If we don’t stand up now, it’s going to be too late. We stand for all of us or we stand for nothing.” 

When asked what kept him up at night, he simply said, “I have kids.” He further said he would like to tell Congressman Hurd, “Get a spine. Stand up to defend the Constitution or step out of the way and let someone else do the work.” 

Patty Ortiz held a flag in one hand and a sign in the other calling to “defend the democracy.” She also said she was protesting for the people who are losing their jobs.  

Art Ortiz is angered by a Congress that is doing nothing. “There have been 35,000 workers laid off already. And the ones who are left can’t even do their job,” he said. 

Nicole Langley said, “I’m protesting because I’m in love with my country and I’m heartbroken about what is going on because we didn’t pay enough attention. We have to get back to normal, proper law and order and respect for the truth.” But her greatest concern is for her daughter who is a disabled veteran. “If she loses her benefits, she’ll die,” she said. “And this is all happening because there are just a very, very few people at the top who want it all.” 

What concerns her son, Keith Langley, is “the loss of the norms of democracy. The notion that we have three co-equal branches of government and that sometimes your side wins and sometimes you lose but you come back and express your views better and fight better and maybe it works the next time and maybe it doesn’t. But it’s the way we have made slow but steady progress for over two hundred years, and it’s now being entirely thrown out and we may never get it back.” 

Bob Rice, co-chair of the Alamosa Democratic Party and one of the main organizers of the event could sum up his reason for protesting without hesitation and in just a few words. “The degradation of our institutions,” he said. 

The protest, held on Presidents’ Day, was part of a nationwide effort organized under the slogan “Not my president”. The group behind the movement that calls itself 50501- Fifty protests. Fifty states. One movement – reports that there were demonstrations in over half the states in the nation and “they’re just getting started.”  

If Monday’s steady stream of cars, trucks and semi-tractor trailers either honking in support or yelling encouragement as they drove by the protest was any indication, the fears and frustrations felt by those who were demonstrating extends far beyond the group that gathered on Monday.