Hands Off! in Boston: Signs of life
Crammed inside a boisterous crowd, tucked between raincoats and elbows, strollers, banners, and dogs, with my ears ringing in the din of excited chatter, I couldn’t gauge the size of the throng around me on the Boston Common, much less hear the speakers holding forth from the Parkman Bandstand.
This is a good problem to have. So many thousands of people had gathered from far and wide to join Boston’s protest of the Trump administration that it was impossible from the center of things to get the big picture. I thought of those scenes in War and Peace where soldiers on the battlefield can see only what’s right in front of them. This wasn’t a war – the “Hands Off!” rallies marshalled in Boston and across the country on April 5, 2025, were explicitly intended to be non-violent – but Americans have suddenly been thrust into a high stakes battle. Everything we love and depend on – from clean air, clean water, and a livable climate to public health and public education, from Social Security, Medicare, and gun safety to free speech and human rights, democracy and the rule of law – everything is at risk or already being decimated. Now is the time to fight for what we hold dear.
I helped to organize two buses from Northampton, and at least eleven charter buses drove to Boston from western Massachusetts. I rode with Bishop Doug Fisher of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts, and I was glad to march beside him past the Cathedral Church of St. Paul as the crowd slowly made its way up Tremont Street to Boston City Plaza. A big sign outside the Episcopal cathedral listed the upcoming worship services for Holy Week, which begins on Palm Sunday with Jesus’ nonviolent procession into Jerusalem to confront the powers-that-be. Here we were, two thousand years later, in our own resolute and peaceful procession to protest Empire. The cathedral’s steps were filled with demonstrators and its doors were open to welcome anyone who wanted a quiet space, a drink of water, a bathroom break, or some words of support or prayer. I was grateful once again for Episcopalians and all people of faith and goodwill who are standing up to tyranny. I thought of a sign I’d held just a few days before in a multi-faith protest outside a Northampton church: “This Christian is against Christian nationalism.”
It wasn’t until later that I would hear accounts of the millions of people taking part in simultaneous “Hands Off!” protests, see an aerial view of the crowds in downtown Boston, or hear excerpts of the rousing speeches (for that, check out a 4-minute news clip from NBC). For now, as I swam in a seemingly endless sea of people moving toward Boston City Hall, I admired the creativity, determination, and resilience expressed in the handmade signs that were bobbing all around me.
One sign was a small poem:
Where do I start?
so much wrong
so little cardboard
Another was even shorter:
Hell no
One was a single word:
No
Some signs were edgy and vulgar, using ridicule to express dissent. To cite one of the tamer examples, a photo of the President was pasted alongside the words: Does this ass makes my sign look big?
Some signs used a broad brush to convey the wrongs:
So awful
even introverts are here
Many signs identified particular concerns:
Hands off immigrants
Hands off farms and farmworkers
Hands off libraries
(dystopian novels should be fiction)
We need groceries,
not Greenland
Medical research saves lives
–A Ph.D. in Ebola
Some signs expressed alarm:
Wake up America
Your house is on fire
If you tolerate this
you will be next
America:
This is not a drill
Some were chilling:
The Holocaust started out
as a mass deportation
Some expressed outrage:
They seek safety and dreams
Trump gives them cages
Stop pretending your racism is patriotism
Some deployed humor:
Be responsible
and neuter your DOGE
Clean up on aisle 47
I couldn’t afford to buy a politician
so I made this sign
–Proud unpaid protester
Let’s just admit we may have taken this
“Anyone can be President” thing
a bit too far!
So much destruction
such little hands
Some signs made pithy declarations:
Where law ends
tyranny begins
No Nazis
No kings
The only minorities
destroying our country
are billionaires
Trans people should not bother you
more than Nazis
Some signs drew from history to bolster our resistance:
They want 1939 Germany
Let’s give them 1789 France
Other signs called upon Boston’s leadership in the War of Independence:
Boston:
Throw oligarchy in the harbor
Boston: Making tyrants nervous since 1775
We listened to drummers, and we joined in chants. Patriotism was in the air. Several times our part of the crowd joined in singing “America the Beautiful.” Not long after that, I heard a penny whistle play a merry “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” By now, rain was falling, and the wind was picking up. American flags, large and small, waved in the breeze.
Some of the signs appealed to our highest values:
Love is resistance
Make lying wrong again
Empathy is not a weakness
Courage is contagious
I will never obey!!
Some signs were addressed not to the Administration but to fellow people in the crowd:
Pace yourself
Love yourself
This is a marathon, not a sprint
Revolutions never happen
If you are sitting on your couch
I noticed one man standing quietly beside a tree as the crowd streamed past. He was holding a small cardboard sign that read Blessed are the meek.
If you want to read an inspiring report on the scope and purpose of the Hands Off! protests, the biggest protests to date of the second Trump administration and the harbinger, God willing, of greater resistance to come, read Rebecca Solnit’s essay, “Millions Stood Up: April 5 Hands Off Day of Action. Among other things, Solnit quotes journalist L.A. Kauffman, who commented, “A massive decentralized movement like this – everywhere all at once, with everybody pitching in – is extremely difficult for any regime, even the most autocratic, to derail. There are too many leaders, coordinating in too many different ways, for a movement like this to be easily neutralized.”
On the day after the “Hands Off” rallies, Christians gathered for Sunday morning worship and heard the words of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 43:18-19):
Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I wonder if God’s Spirit is summoning ordinary Americans to do something new – to lay claim to our deepest hopes and highest values, to break out of old patterns, and to build community as we work together for a better world.
In the meantime, I must quote one final sign:
No one let go
of anyone’s hand.
Leave a Reply
17 Responses to “Hands Off! in Boston: Signs of life”
Janet Nelson
Thank you , Margaret. We all have deeply held and shared beliefs.
Jonas
Margaret, thank you for all the practical decisions you made (during phone calls, emails, and Zoom conferences) as you organized the busses from Northampton to Boston. Thank you for your enthusiastic, creative, and inspiring leadership as we step forward with courage to speak truth to power.
Judson
Thank for your organizing and orienting and herding us cats with skill and grace, and thank you for this terrific account, especially for capturing so many messages from the signs.
Tinka McArdke
Beautifully expressed Margaret,
as well as your response, Jonas!
You share great hope, joy, love and commitment, Margaret. Let’s keep working to keep Hands Off all that America stands for, including respect and inclusion for the rights of all! Thank you, Margaret!!
Tinka McArdle
Easthampton, MA
Nancy Gilbert
Many blessings to you Margaret for organizing the buses and getting us to Boston safely and back. Last week was bookended with Corey Booker and the rallies. This is a good start and gives me hope.
Kay Spencer
I liked the sign that just said
What Cory Said
mbj
I didn’t see that one! Amen!
Linda Eichengreen
Thank you Margaret for your well written summary of the Boston march. I was marching with my daughter and grandddaughter in Merced, California. Not as large of a crowd but a fired up group of people demonstrating with signs and loud voices as people drove by in their cars. Hands Off was a good way for us to discharge so much anger and fear. Let’s keep it going!!
Steve Abdow
I love this!
Sarah Briggs
Thanks so much for helping organize the busses to Boston and sharing this important, exciting, peaceful
protest. I hadn’t seen the news coverage and appreciated the link. Thank you for the hopeful words.
Sue Swanson
What a lovely review of an amazing event. I am especially grateful for all the signs you transcribed. Being sick at home, I missed all the fun.
Trish Callard
Margaret
I loved the way you captured little moments and lots of expressIons on signs and then offered up the miracle of it all …so many standing up and saying no!
Thank you ❤️for your momentum in organizing the buses
Trish
Marie-Caroline van Herpen - Decazes
Thank you Margaret! Wish I could have been with you. Imagine the millions more, who were too far to join and/or afraid of crowds, but with you in spirit.
With love, MCaroline
Maggie Sweeney
thank you Margaret, for your powerful account of the rally, and for your work in getting many people there. Kudos!!
Julie Anderson
Ditto to a great wonderful heap of accolades above and to those orally expressed for bringing us,100 + strong, to Boston April 5, Margaret! Your stepping up with resolve at the moment you did encouraged all of us to buy a ticket NOW! Others too late to get their tickets, rented buses! You ran with the ball!! Lenny joined! Thanks also for capturing the creative string of signs–and ending your beautiful essay with this one–“No one let go of anyone’s hand”!
Lavonne Seifert
Thank you, Margaret, for organizing an impressive response from western MA and for this inspiring description of it. As many have said, I especially appreciate that you included the variety of thoughts expressed by the signs! Always grateful for your ministry, creativity and commitment. ❤️
Tina Rathbone
Thank you for this wonderful recap of the day Margaret, for your presence there, and for making it possible for so many others to come with you. Being able to read some of the signs now, several days later, is strangly moving and even more powerful than reading them there. Thank you so much again!