How Forest Hills and Van Ness showed up for the April 5 Hands Off! rally

by Marlene Berlin

The Hands Off! DC rally on April 5th was an all-ages affair.

As I made my way to the National Mall from the Farragut North Metro station, I noticed several families with children. And as I headed back home, I ran into one of my neighbors. Stephanie had been at the rally with her kids, ages 4 and 5, and later emailed me with the below photo and her reasons for including her children.

“Our children don’t have the right to vote,” Stephanie wrote, “but they can raise their voices, and it’s important to show them that change isn’t just made at the ballot box – it starts with the courage to speak out and stand up.”

Marching together as a family “felt powerful,” she said, and seeing neighbors walk to the Metro with signs in hand gave her kids “a rush of excitement because they could see we were part of something much bigger than ourselves.”

Another Forest Hills neighbor, Joan Merle Schaefer, sent this photo of her kids (ages 5, 7 and 9) at the Hands Off! rally.

At another end of the age spectrum were organizers in their 80s and 90s who gathered their neighbors in the Van Ness North co-op to rally the rallygoers on their way to the Mall.

Barbara Green writes, “We stretched all the way from Veazey Terrace down to Van Ness Street, and up Connecticut Avenue as well. [Fellow organizer] Susan Gillespie and I drove up Connecticut to the Beltway and found pockets of people holding signs all along the way, but ours was by far the largest group. Cars and buses honked at us as they passed. We felt as thought we were part of the 5 million people in every state who showed their strong opposition to what our government is doing. It was exhilarating!”

Green, Gillespie and neighbor and fellow organizer Ann Matheson were also featured in this NBC 4 report:

I’ll close with more from neighbor Stephanie:

“Teaching our children the values of social justice and activism is not just about shaping their minds, but about empowering them to stand up for what’s right, to fight for equality, and to build a future where compassion and fairness lead the way. Just as the Children’s March during the Civil Rights era showed the world the power of young voices in the fight for justice, today’s children standing up in protest are continuing that legacy – reminding us that courage, no matter how young, can ignite powerful change.”