Correspondent photo / Sean Barron Jodi Fertsch of East Palestine holds a sign during Saturday’s peaceful rally at the Mahoning County Courthouse in Youngstown to protest the Trump administration.

YOUNGSTOWN — Tim Hauser has served 10 years in the military and says he has no intention of sitting idly as funding and employees who assist fellow veterans are cut and services for those who nobly fought for the country are undermined.

“I served in the Air Force from 1982 to 1992. I was in Operation Desert Storm,” Hauser, of Twinsburg, said. “They’re making cuts to the VA (Department of Veterans Affairs), and it’s hurting veterans, and they’re intimidating VA employees.”

Rather than sitting, Hauser did far more standing to express his outrage regarding what he sees as the Trump administration’s efforts to decimate the agency and deprive veterans of their rightful benefits and needs.

An internal memo leaked last month revealed the Department of Government Efficiency intended to furlough about 80,000 employees at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which would amount to a 17% staff reduction.

Hauser was among those who made their feelings known as they spoke against what they see as the administration’s fascist-style threats to veterans’ rights and benefits; the Constitution; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer rights; education curriculums; countless diversity, equity and inclusion programs; immigrant and free-speech rights; Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits; science and research; environmental regulations; and efforts to combat climate change.

Many were angered also at the Trump administration’s decision to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland and other immigrants, who had entered the U.S. legally, to a prison in El Salvador – which many refer to as a concentration camp. Others’ anger was rooted in the possibility of federal efforts to privatize agencies such as the U.S. Postal Service.

Hauser unleashed his feelings as one of those who spoke during a peaceful demonstration Saturday afternoon at and across the street from the Mahoning County Courthouse downtown.

A similar protest took place earlier Saturday in Warren’s Courthouse Square.

About 400 community leaders, activists, children and others attended the three-hour rally, themed “We will not be silenced.” Helping to organize the protest to demand accountability, social change, peace, justice and greater fairness was the Mahoning Valley Freedom Fighters, a grassroots group of citizens dedicated to creating positive social change as well as defending human rights and democracy.

The Youngstown and Warren rallies also were among more than 800 protests, teach-ins, mutual-aid efforts and food drives across the nation Saturday. Organizing many of them was the 50501 movement (50 protests, 50 states, one movement), a grassroots political organization established to fight the policies and actions of the second Trump administration.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs wants to cut staffing to 2019 levels, even though an estimated 1 million more veterans receive services today than six years ago. Such a move would, among other things, lead to much longer and unnecessary wait times, Hauser told a crowd that lined both sides of Market Street.

Hauser also said he had taken part in another type of fight: He was among those who advocated for passing the PACT Act, which expands benefits and health care for veterans of the Vietnam, Desert Storm and post-9/11 eras who had been exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxins. Because it’s being threatened under Trump, efforts to continue it could “return to square one,” Hauser said.

Michael Murphy, president of the Youngstown-based American Federation of Government Employees Local 3448, which represents Social Security and other workers, said the DOGE team “has been very disruptive to our agency” and wants to get rid of 25% of its cybersecurity employees while undermining its foundation. Nearly all of those he serves are demoralized and under tremendous stress because of arbitrary changes at a time when staffing is at its lowest point in 50 years, yet the employees remain committed to their work, he said.

About 73 million Americans receive monthly Social Security checks, or about 20% of the population. Any interruptions to the system will greatly impact communities, he continued.

Murphy urged those who are upset at the situation to call the Washington, D.C., office of U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Salem, at 202-225-5705.

“Religious beliefs belong at home and in church, not in schools,” Heather Smith, a Volney Rogers Elementary School technology teacher, said. “They are places for learning, not religious recruitment.”

Her stance is not anti-religion, but schools need to be bastions of learning, along with spaces for developing critical-thinking and social skills, she stressed. In addition, they must provide all students with the right to be “seen, safe and respected,” said Smith, who also is a Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past member.

Penny Wells, Sojourn to the Past’s executive director, said she recently drafted a letter to defy a Trump administration mandate to all school superintendents regarding ceasing using diversity, equity and inclusion practices by Thursday, or lose Title I and Title II funding.

In an April 3 letter, the administration gave education leaders 10 days to sign a certification saying they are complying with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, though the move also considers diversity, equity and inclusion to be a potential violation of the anti-discrimination Title VI law without providing a clear definition of what it considers DEI.

Endorsing her letter were the Martin Luther King Jr. Planning Committee of the Mahoning Valley, the Mahoning Valley Association of Churches and the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, Wells noted.

Several Youngstown State University students also spoke, including an emotional Emily Akers of Youngstown, who said she is worried that the administration’s racist policies could lead to another “Trail of Tears,” which refers to the forced removal and relocation in the mid-1800s of about 60,000 Cherokees, Chickasaws, Seminoles and other Native Americans from their ancestral lands in the southeastern U.S. to a territory that is now Oklahoma.

Akers, who is half Cherokee and half Passamaquoddy, tearfully recalled the painful plight of many of her ancestors, but retained a steely resolve to continue speaking against injustices.

“My people have been robbed, beaten and murdered, but we will never be silent,” she said to applause.

Other speakers such as Janet Cobb of Salem urged attendees to fight for everyone’s rights and continue to resist the Trump administration on multiple levels. Earlier, Cobb had attended a rally in Lisbon at which about 80 people showed up.

She also engaged protesters in a series of call-and-response chants, including “Save our Constitution!” before leading demonstrators on a peaceful walk around Central Square.

WARREN RALLY

Before the Youngstown demonstration, an estimated 150 adults and children lined East Market Street in front of Courthouse Square. They included Lorraine of Cortland and Savannah of Warren, neither of whom wanted their last names used.

“I’m just tired of this administration wanting to become a dictatorship,” Lorraine said, adding, “If we don’t stand up, they will be emboldened.”

“I’m sick of the 1% trying to create policies for themselves and just taking everyone else down in the process,” Savannah added.

Lorraine’s husband receives Medicare, so she is worried about possible cuts, she said.

Farther down East Market Street was a cluster of sign-bearing demonstrators that included Charles Rader, Ken and Danita Davis, all of Warren, and Bonnie Everitt and Don Coburn, both of Champion, all of whom expressed concerns regarding Trump administration policies.

Specifically, they were angered at efforts to get rid of the U.S. Department of Education, along with attacks on universities, veterans and Social Security. Danita Davis’ primary worry, however, was broader.

“I’m concerned that they’re undermining the Constitution in general,” she said.

For Gary Tuttle of Fowler, who helped organize the two-hour event, the worries also are personal because he wants his two young grandchildren to grow up in a kinder nation “not run by oligarchs and billionaires for their own good,” he said.

His other concerns are the concentration of an inordinate amount of power in the hands of a few at the expense of the common good, as well as the slow return of measles and other diseases that had been eradicated, Tuttle continued.

“I really think some people don’t realize how much danger we’re all in. It’s due process and the rule of law that keep us safe,” Amelia Magjik of Jamestown, Pa., who attended the rally with her uncle, said, adding that she feels many farmers are being hurt because of Trump’s tariffs.

Laura Liberman of Warren took a slightly different approach. She spent part of Saturday’s peaceful demonstration passing out thank-you cards encouraging others to express written gratitude toward Maine Gov. Janet Mills and others she feels have resisted the Trump administration’s edicts and demands.

“Those people who stand up show us what it really means to be a true leader and patriot,” she said. “It’s important to let the world know how we value them.”