A crowd that one member estimated to be about 2,500 people braved blustery weather conditions on Saturday to express their displeasure and objections over recent actions and announced plans by the President Trump administration.
“This rally is being put on by the Kauai Indivisible,” said Mary Lu Kelley of Kauai Indivisible. “Margie Merryman arranged for the sound system, and is teaching people different chants. Our rally is part of what I understand to be 55,000 events taking place across the county. Our theme is ‘Hands Off,’ such as hands off Medicare, hands off our Social Security, hands off our children’s schools, and more.”
Cars and trucks traveling on Rice Street fronting the historic County Building picked up the messages carried by the sea of sign wavers and honked their approval. At one point, a pickup truck bearing American flags with the likeness of Trump stirred the signwavers, but everything remained peaceful.
“This is only the second time in my life that I’m doing this,” said retired Koloa Public Library librarian David Thorpe. “I did this back in the ‘70s. At that time, it was about Nixon and the Vietnam War. Have you seen Lani Kawahara from the Lihue Library? Her signs are very efficient.”
A rally attendee said there was a similar rally taking place at the Ahukini Road and Kapule Highway intersection near the Lihue Airport. However, they said that event was not put on by the Kauai Indivisible, but by some people living in Kilauea and the North Shore.
“Do you see what’s happening with the stock market?” one attendee said amid the chanting and horn honking. “I’m losing money, I couldn’t just sit around the house. I had to do something.”
The crowd spanned from the intersection of Rice and Umi streets, westward to beyond the Kauai Museum on both sides of Rice Street until past the First Hawaiian Bank, Lihue Branch.
“We don’t have a permit for the historic County Building lawn,” a Kauai Indivisible volunteer said. “We keep asking the people coming to stay off the sidewalk and go westward on both sides of Rice Street.”
That task was aided by the appearance of a pair of Kauai Police Department cruisers that established safe boundaries using traffic cones.
“Our job today was to get the message out there,” Kelley said. “With this many people, what do you think? We got the message out there?”
Kauai Indivisible has a membership of about 600 people.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 808-245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
