LAKE PLACID — A quick look at the many signs wielded at Thursday’s May Day protest in Lake Placid will tell you people have a lot of concerns on their minds. and yet, there’s a sense of unity. For many in the crowd, even the opportunity to be around some like-minded people was worth it.
“It’s important to see each other, that we all care,” Lake Placid resident Krystal Ford said.
Thursday’s protest was a part of yet another round of protests, around the nation and the world, against President Donald Trump’s agenda. The May Day holiday is also known as International Workers’ Day or Labor Day, but the concerns cited by protesters — and their signs — were far-ranging.
“There are so many reasons I’m here,” Ford said. She feels like the Trump administration intends to cause fear, and she’s determined to not give in to that. She sums up her concerns as being primarily around due process and First Amendment rights. The idea of a legal resident being detained for protected speech is “un-American, and downright scary,” she said.
Numerous legal residents have been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under a variety of different circumstances. Recently, Mohsen Mahdawi, a green card holder who had helped organize pro-Palestinian activities at Columbia University, was freed after being in custody for more than two weeks.
“If we don’t have the First Amendment, forget the rest of the amendments,” Ford said. “If we don’t have the first, forget the rest. They’re all gonna go.”
Keela Grimmette was standing in the line along the sidewalk by the ‘Dack Shack alongside her two children, Ona and Finn, and her mother, Kitty Dates. She’s been to protests in Saranac Lake and is trying to work with local businesses to help them support their visa workers by knowing their rights. She’s concerned about a lot of issues — health insurance, immigration and LGBTQ-plus rights, for example — but her biggest concern is also due process.
She was proud to be one of three generations attending the protest Thursday, saying this is something she’d like her kids to witness.
“It’s okay to use your voice, and it’s okay for people to disagree with you,” Grimmette said. “You can do it in a peaceful, kind, loving way. I really think just because we’re speaking up doesn’t mean we’re spreading hate. It’s like we’re spreading love and community.”
People with signs lined both sides of state Route 86 outside Stewart’s Shops and the Dack Shack. After about half-an-hour of scattered chants and cheering at friendly horn honks, a state trooper and Essex County Sheriff’s deputy told the crowd not to stand on the grass, reportedly in response to a complaint from Stewart’s corporate office. So the crowd stood in the road instead.
Imam Dajany, a resident of Saranac Lake, was there to protest against the aid the United States has supplied to Israel during its war on Gaza. Her sign listed the amount of money the U.S. has given to Israel.
“They are firing people and cutting grants, but not even a second thought to it,” she said, indicating the $24.8 billion on her sign. “And this is going directly in military aid and money, right? To kill families in tents.”
According to the nonpartisan think tank, Council on Foreign Relations, the U.S. has given Israel about $310 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance since 1946. Since the Hamas attack in Oct. 2023, the Biden administration had given at least $12.5 billion in direct military aid to Israel, according to CFR. A March 1 press statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced another $12 billion in military sales to Israel, saying “Israel has no greater ally in the White House than President Trump.”
And for Dajany, this is personal. Her father was a Palestinian living in Jerusalem and was kicked out of his home in 1948. He didn’t talk about his experience much, but she’s tried to educate herself about the complex history between Israel and Palestine. She said the Western media often doesn’t cover both sides of the story.
This is not her first rodeo, or protest. Her sign, or at least the stick, is the same one she used while protesting U.S. involvement in the Middle East during George W. Bush’s administration. The message on the sign has changed since then, though, as well as Dajany’s view of her country.
“We’re about to lose our country,” she said. “I can remember when the U.S. was respected and our money went to highways and universities and hospitals.”