Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan's Second Wave's On the Ground Kalamazoo series.

KALAMAZOO, MI — It was a festive yet angry crowd out along Westnedge in Portage on Saturday, April 5.

A lot of smiles. A lot of supportive honking from drivers. Some fun costumes. And many signs showing that the people weren't happy with the current presidential administration.


Fran Dwight
The "Hands Off!" demonstrations, against President Trump, Elon Musk, DOGE, Project 2025, and the rest of it, took place on April 5 in 1,200 locations in all 50 states, according to NPR. 

Fran Dwight

I went out into our local crowd with our photographer Fran Dwight to capture the moment.

Before I left, my spouse waved an N95 mask at me. "For the tear gas?" she suggested.

No, it's not going to be like that. But I did wonder, what if someone starts trouble? What if I step into chaos? 

Fran DwightBut it was all peaceful. Nearly 4,000 protesters lined the road, organizer for Indivisible Kalamazoo, Ken Greschak says afterward. There were no incidents from the protestors, nor from any counter-protestors, he says. "We had heard a rumor of a counter-protest that could appear that day, but it never did."

Indivisible contacted the City of Portage and Portage Police, let them know what was happening, and agreed to be civil. 

Fran DwightThe organizers' message to the 1,000 registered protestors was to stay peaceful, not engage with any counter-protestors, and keep the street, drives, and sidewalk clear.

Fran DwightThe couple thousand more who showed up unexpectedly, without registering beforehand, likely didn't receive the rules, yet they stayed peaceful. 

Greschak says they wanted the crowd to stay on the west side of the road, but many did cross over to the east. It was crowded on the official side. People stretched out over a mile, from the Milham intersection to Romence Road. 

Fran DwightThe crowd could be called angry but festive, Greschak agrees. "I think fear is another emotion that's motivating people as they watch, aghast at how this administration is dismantling things, and just what the future is going to hold.

Fran Dwight"But when we all come together like that, it's definitely festive, right? It's an opportunity for people to see that they're not alone, and they're out there with their friends and their neighbors, and they're making new friends."

Courtesy, Ken GreschakKen Greschak (foreground) local organizer of the "Hands Off!" protest for Indivisible Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo's Indivisible began as "12 people in a living room" around the beginning of the year. They now have 700 registered members. The group is described as a progressive movement and organization in the United States that started in 2016 as a reaction to the election of Donald Trump as the U.S. President.

Fran Dwight"There's a real palpable sense of urgency, I think, that people are feeling now," Greschak says. "Our task is to keep people engaged and to keep this momentum going and building."

Regular citizens, protesting

Whatever image one might have in one's head of radicals in the street, the protestor "type," the professional demonstrator, most of the 4,000 did not appear to be that.

Many told us, truthfully and with good humor, that they have yet to receive a check from George Soros, or any other billionaire, for being out on a gloomy Saturday, with temps in the 40s.

Ron Zellers says he did protest in the '60s, but never hit the streets in the decades after, until now.

Fran DwightKalamazoo residents Mary Lou Sedlock and Ron Zellers, seated, say they're anti-Trump, anti-Musk, and pro-democracy. "I hate Trump," he says, succinctly. "And he should be charged with treason and Elon with bribery. That I think 100%."

Zellers was with Mary Lou Sedlock. "This is my first protest. It was so important to me. I can barely walk, but I said, 'I would crawl here if I had to,'" she says. "We need to get rid of Trump. We need to get rid of Musk. We need our democracy."

"Fran DwightRon Zellers is a retired army medic. "I'm just glad to see people out here for all those guys who fought for freedom," he says.I'm just glad to see people out here for all those guys who fought for freedom," Zellers says.

Fran DwightMany veterans came out to the April 5 protest.He served as an Army medic and remembers his oath to the Constitution. "I promised to defend the Constitution and everything else!"

Fran DwightMany veterans came out to the April 5 protest.A variety of causes had representation: Gaza, climate change, Social Security, Medicare. Rights and respect for all, including women, LGBTQ, trans, and people of color. 
Fran DwightI asked many people, "What brings you out today?" And got a long list of sincere grievances filling up my recorder from each. In general, at the center of the grievances was Trump and all that his administration touches. 

Fran DwightAmy Glass, "I know that if we connect with each other we're stronger, that's why I'm here to just be another body."We asked Kalamazoo resident Amy Glass, making her way down the sidewalk on a walker, the question, and she quickly got emotional.

Fran Dwight"Oh my gosh, I care so deeply about our beautiful country," she says, choking up. "I can't believe what's happening, and I need to come here and stand with my neighbors and my community and make noise because it's so awful what is happening...  I know that if we connect with each other we're stronger. That's why I'm here to just be another body."

Fran DwightGlass is worried for immigrants and angry about "recent examples of people just being taken... It's such evil."

Fran DwightGlass was thinking of people being sent to a prison in El Salvador without due process, and fair legal proceedings guaranteed by the 5th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. 

Lori Moore was thinking about her finances. 
Fran DwightRetired local media personality Lori Moore (blue hat), letting everyone know how she feels. Patti McNulty stands behind her with the yellow sign."I'm watching my life savings evaporate before my eyes," Moore, retired broadcast personality for WKZO and the CW7's "The Lori Moore Show,' says. "I didn't think when I retired I would have to worry about Social Security or Medicare."

(Retired local media personality Lori Moore (blue hat), letting everyone know how she feels. Patti McNulty stands behind her with the yellow sign.She continues, "Of course, I have not listed all the things I'm pissed about.... I wasn't trying to sound self-absorbed."

Fran DwightBig changes in government, no matter the party doing the changes, can affect all. Eventually, this Administration's actions impact everyone, from the Venezuelan immigrant to the financial futures of former media personalities. 

"I'm furious about everything that's happening to our country," Moore says. 

Fran DwightShe looks around her. "Everybody's sign is about a different topic that is terrifying."

Many critiqued Trump's apparent style of government — which, according to some signs, is quite right-of-center, to say the least.

Fran DwightIssac Turner, looking for a place to park.We ran into Isaac Turner, a Kalamazoo Valley Community College instructor, and asked him about the political vibe on Westnedge. 

"Normally, I subscribe to the Søren Kierkegaard dictum of, 'there's no truth in a crowd'" he says, drily. But he had to be a part of this crowd. "It really feels like fascism is looming in a very scary way," he adds.

Turner describes his politics as "progressive," and says that he read Marxist theory "at an impressionable age" growing up in a poor county in North Dakota.

Fran DwightBut he suspects there's a wide spectrum of the political rainbow at the protest. He says he's seen many of his co-workers there. "Oh, my god! Particularly, there's a couple, I don't know how they voted, but they're here, so at least they care about stopping fascism."

Again, it seemed that many people at the protest were not frequent protestors. They don't show up at every march, for every cause. Many told us that this was their first.

What does bring the average citizen out to march around with a sign? What events cause the non-protesting person to cross that line?

Turner says, "For me, what made it cross the line, made me want to show up... is in the past week (Trump) was pushing through a defunding of libraries and museums. I just can't believe that.... My mom is a librarian. Libraries are sacred and museums are sacred," he says.

He adds, "I am emboldened too, to see the often very fractious left... all showing up here."

To be in this crowd, you don't have to pass any political purity test?

"Exactly!"

We found one politician out to meet his constituents, Democratic State Rep. Matt Longjohn of the 40th House District. 

Fran DwightDemocratic State Rep. Matt Longjohn of the 40th House District. "People didn't vote for this sh*#," he said of the Trump Administration's actions.Longjohn was blunt. "You know people didn't vote for this sh*#. People voted, actually, for better government, not no government at all.... What they're doing is just hijack government and vandalize the entire system. It's gonna hurt so many people."

"Hands Off!" might have seemed like a demonstration against the current Republican Party, but some we spoke with said they were also disappointed with elected Democrats.

Fran DwightIn our later interview, Indivisible organizer Greschak says the group is non-partisan, not affiliated with any party. "We need the Democrats to stand up more. We need them to be a better opposition party," he says.

Fran DwightIn making sure I have the basic details correct about the people I interview, I often Google names while writing. At least two people interviewed at the protest were registered Republicans.

Flying the Red, White, and Blue

There were many flags out Saturday, such as those of friends and allies, Ukraine and Canada. 

Fran DwightNo one knew what the flag was of the Heard and McDonald Islands, the tiny uninhabited Australian territory that Trump slapped with a tariff, but many showed support to the islands’ main residents, penguins.

Fran DwightMostly there were US flags. True, some were upside down, a signal of distress, but they were flying.

One man was proudly strutting down the sidewalk, beaming, in a blue Duke University outfit, carrying a huge fringed American Flag.

Mark WedelTroy Zukowski-Serlin, of Kalamazoo. "I want to take our rightful share of the American flag." I ask about the flags in the crowd and his flag. "I support all of these causes here, and I want to take our rightful share of the American flag," Troy Zukowski-Serlin, of Kalamazoo, says.

"For far too long, we've allowed the political right to basically commandeer the flag and identify Trumpism with Americanism, which I think is absolutely outrageous.

Fran Dwight"I don't think a lot of Americans understand, for instance, that when you take an oath to serve in the United States military, you take an oath to the Constitution. You don't take an oath to the Commander-in-Chief. And you don't take an oath to the country as a whole. It's to the Constitution!"

Zukowski-Serlin wasn't in the military, but he does military social work, he says. He's active in politics and was involved in the organization of the Portage protest.

Fran Dwight"I've had several people here today ask me, 'Are you with the opposition?' Just because I had the flag! That's how they've gotten into our minds. When they see somebody who's white, got a Duke outfit on, they think, oh, I'm a preppy white guy with an American flag. I must be a Republican." He lets out a big laugh. "It's not the case!"

He kept talking as he strutted toward Romence, about the Constitution, Lincoln, the Civil War, on up to Vladimir Putin, and autocracy versus democracy. Elections matter. Trump won, he says, but "when the institutions aren't taking care of things, our people are out here on the streets."