Hundreds of Plateau residents gathered at the corner of Porter Street and Griffin Avenue last weekend, joining countless others around the country for the “Hands Off” protest against President Donald Trump, Tesla- and X-owner Elon Musk, and the current administration.

Reasons for attending were myriad and often all-encompassing.

Dore (pronounced Dory) Aitken’s sign simply read, “I lived 97 years for this?”

“We’ve all got the same purpose in mind, and that’s to get some sort of… grown up for leadership,” she said, sporting apparel from her alma mater, University of California; the school’s famous Vietnam War protests were after her time, but she wanted to bring that spirit to this demonstration. She came to protest budget cuts to programs that will affect generations of citizens. “… [W]e take care of our elders and our kids, and we don’t waste public funds.”

At the other end of the generation spectrum was Embrey Smith, 13, who said she was there in support of women’s rights and “everything”.

“It sucks to… live this long just to see this,” she said of Aitken’s experience. But as a member of Gen Z, and seeing people of the Silent Generation also attending, “means a lot of people care, and a lot of people of different ages [and] cultures want to protest.”

Walking through the crowd, sans sign and sporting a pro-Second Amendment shirt, was Jim Sutter.

While he could have been misidentified as a non-participant, or even anti-protestor, he was hitting up different corners of the protest to tell people that, at 67, this was his first.

“A lot of old people my same age are saying it’s their first protest because… it’s just getting out of hand,” he said. “It’s the whole government… that they think they can play with my Social Security.”

He added that while he’s already receiving his benefits, his girlfriend is attempting to start getting hers, and they’re worried about roadblocks resulting from budget cuts and firings.

As his shirt suggests, Sutter is “completely” behind the right to bear arms, and he was proud of the fact that after he was convicted of a felony and served his time, he worked really hard to get back his right to vote and to own a gun.

While he said he didn’t regret his crime, he also said the process he went through was fair — but he’s not seeing the current administration hold to the promise of the rule of law.

“People are getting sent to El Salvador without a trial,” he said, possibly alluding to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a lawful resident of the U.S. who was mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison without due process last March. “… [T]hat could have been you. That could have been me.”

Melissa Tatro recalled how her father — a lifelong Republican — took the family away from their camping trip to drive to a Shakey’s Pizza Parlor on Aug. 8, 1974 to watch former President Richard Nixon resign.

“My dad made such a point that even though he was a Nixon supporter, had voted for him, that there is a rule of law and we must follow it,” she said. “He really followed his conscience on that. And… he saw that Jimmy Carter came in next, and I think that hurt his soul, but he felt really strongly that with the rule of law, we have to follow it.”

She added that unfortunately, her father is still a “staunch” Republican and was not at the demonstration.