By Mike McCombs
The Island News
Like millions of Americans across the nation who filled streets, sidewalks, parks and many other open spaces on Saturday, Oct. 18, more than 1,000 protesters lined Boundary Street in Beaufort in front of City Hall for the second organized No Kings Protest.
The peaceful demonstrations, numbering more than 2,600 nationwide, drew the participation of at least 7 million people in cities and towns, large and small. Many wore costumes in solidarity with protesters nationally. There were no arrests locally, and very few nationally.
“Beautiful,” said 45-year-old Marque Fireall of St. Helena Island. “It’s a reminder that you’re not alone, that you’re not crazy, that the things that you’re seeing are unfolding in real life, and that other people are seeing what you’re seeing, also.”
Fireall, born and raised in Beaufort County, was carrying a large American flag. He served 10 years in the U.S. Navy, completing deployments in Japan and in Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
“My country has forgotten that we are made of a patchwork of people. I am an African-American man. I am a father of a disabled child. I am physically and mentally [disabled] myself,” said Fireall, who has a prosthetic leg. “I am an educator. All of those pieces of my life are under attack by this administration. I see our military tilting more toward serving our president instead of serving the Constitution and the republic of the United States. That’s a problem for me.”
Taylor and Jennifer Anderson, a son and his mother, are originally from Kentucky. Joining the Marine Corps in 2016 brought them here.
“This isn’t what I fought for. I’m watching people get ripped away from their families. I’m watching citizens be ripped off the streets by masked people that aren’t identifying themselves. I’m watching us send hundreds of billions of dollars to other countries while we’re struggling here on a war that we shouldn’t even be a part of, watching a genocide happen,” Taylor Anderson said. “All of this is happening, and it’s not what I signed up for when I signed up for the Marine Corps back in 2016.”
Taylor Anderson said the things happening now are precisely why he left the Marine Corps.
“I couldn’t do it any more,” he said. “I served under Donald Trump [in his first term]. I saw what it was. This time around, it’s so much worse. And I just can’t live in silence about it. We’re seeing things happen that we were told we were crazy, that it wasn’t going to happen. And then he says, ‘Oh, I don’t know what Project 2025 is.’ And now we’re just a few months in and he’s praising it. It’s all happening right in front of us.”
“I’m not going to be silent. Good luck shutting me up,” said Jennifer Anderson. “I’m a mom, I’m tired of it, I’m 45 years old, and I’ve never been so scared in my life. … Also taking women and women’s rights and black and brown history out of our schools and pushing in religion, it’s not right. I think Christian Nationalism is taking over in this country, and I’m f*****g scared.”
Dennis Sayer, originally from New York, has lived in Beaufort two years. He was carrying a sign that read “Congress needs to do its job.”
“I didn’t think Trump would be elected for all of the reasons you’re starting to see now. And I have to do something to make a difference, to let my opinion be known,” he said. “It’s really hard to make changes in this society. This seems to be one of the only ways. And so, here I am.”
Fireall said like-minded citizens need to keep doing what they’re doing if they want to affect change.
“It think the first thing people can do is uphold their right and their obligation as a citizen and contact their elected officials. Unfortunately, our elected official doesn’t want to hear anybody that doesn’t agree with them,” Fireall said. “The second thing is make your voice be known, that you are dissatisfied with the current administration and their policies by doing things like this so that they do have the obligation to redress our grievances.”
Mike McCombs is the editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
