On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
We’re deep in the heart of Confederate Pennsylvania here, just over the Mason-Dixon Line. I went to the Hands Off protest and wondered how this would turn out with gray skies and rain threatening.
With my crack bird-counting skills (find a group of 10, then count groups) I figured we had 600 in April, the paper reported 750. I was pleasantly surprised on Saturday: this was bigger, I estimated 1,200 to 1,500 and the paper called it “thousands”. Okay, 2,000 is “thousands”.
As for the percent of the population, York is about 44,000, the metro area about 240,000, the County around 450,000, so it wasn’t that great, but it’s a start.
This was what I saw as I drove through the square. The protest was in the center square of the city, so there were four equal sized corners. People were 2 or 3 deep on the corner then spread out 1 deep on the curb further out.
One of the corners.
Another corner
This shows how far down the street the people were standing. It was about the same for all four corners.
This truck with the unfortunate slogan pulled up to the stoplight. The driver was cool, though. He honked in solidarity. We had lots of honks, thumbs up, signs waved at us from cars. I can’t think of more than one or two counter-protesting drivers. Very gratifying.
zhena gogolia
So beautiful. Thank you.
Betty
That does look promising for a place like York, including all the drive-by support.
Suzanne
Love to see it!!!
Spanky
Alexandra Petri is now at The Atlantic.
KrackenJack
Nice!
I’ll note that at noon the day after the event, there were a dozen No Kings demonstrators on a random corner on the SF Peninsula. I was just biking across El Camino, so I don’t know if there were others. Lots of honking and support from drivers.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I know York well enough and the area too well so that turnout, and location, was great.
I’ll be up US-30 in Lancaster in a month.
JML
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I agree. I think the turnout in York was just lovely.
tobie
Impressive turnout in York for York. Thanks for sharing your photos.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Even his Kim Jong-Un parade was a protest. I’ve seen many military commenters remark about how very un-military the marching was. No cadence, casual bearing, etc. They looked like they were just strolling down to the beach rather than parading. Russian media released a propaganda video comparing a Russian parade to that spectacle.
When you add in the choice of “Fortunate Son” as marching music, it’s clear the Army was deliberately mocking him, within the bounds of following orders.
Elizabelle
@Spanky: I love Alexandra Petri. The Atlantic was lucky to scoop her up.
Urza
Going to drop this here because I won’t be able to post for awhile if someone can take it to another open thread later.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/16/va-doctors-refuse-treat-patients
‘Extremely disturbing and unethical’: new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans
WaterGirl
@Urza: That is absolutely appalling! I’ll bet there is already a lawsuit filed.
bbleh
Re York, and other locations in SE PA, Philly sucked in a LOT of people from LONG distances. There were chartered buses, people took trains, some people traveled literally hours. Even at smaller protests I’ve chatted with people from beyond Philly and the collar counties. We may have cannibalized.
Freemark
Glad you were there too. Living in York County is politically depressing but this for York is pretty good.
Matt McIrvin
@bbleh: In hindsight, I think the gigantic combined No Kings/Pride event in Boston (a million people??) pulled down rally numbers elsewhere in the area. That’s fine with me.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@bbleh:
I wonder if Chester had a rally (probably) and how that went, if so? Haven’t seen any reporting on that.
For those outside this area, Chester is a very poor, majority non-white city in Delaware County. They have a history of being shafted in various ways (for instance if somebody is going to build a high-pollution generating plant of some kind, it’s likely going to be in Chester). But they also have a really strong activist culture.
WaterGirl
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: You could investigate and let us know. :-)
frosty
@bbleh: You didn’t cannabilize from York. We’re a Baltimore suburb. Cross the Suskie?? To Philly??? ((shudder))
frosty
@Betty: @comrade scotts agenda of rage: @JML: @tobie: @Freemark: Thanks for all the encouragement. Yes, it is politically depressing. When I was canvassing for Obama, the precinct captain said if we could get York County over 34% we’d win the state. I checked the stats going back to 1992 and he was dead on. Anything less and PA went R in the presidential.
I said “Cool” … then I said “34% is good????? Argghhh!!!!!!”