Protesters are hoping the slow-moving traffic to The Big E agricultural fair in West Springfield this month helps amplify their messages defending free speech and anti-authoritarianism.
On Saturday, a few dozen people – organized by chapters from the group Individisible – lined up to hold signs in front of a gear shop, along the main road leading to The Big E fairgrounds.
Eileen Pratt, 81, was sitting out on a camping chair with her husband David, a veteran.
“We're big believers in the U.S. Constitution. The three separate branches with checks and balances on each,” Pratt said. “And Trump and the MAGA Republicans, it seems to us, have completely just betrayed our Constitution. And we want it back.”
That’s why Pratt, a retired office worker, decided to spend a gorgeous afternoon breathing in exhaust fumes.
She said she wasn’t politically active until Trump won his second election.
“Nothing will change unless enough of the American public gets activated and does something,” she said. “Whatever they're comfortable with, whether it's making phone calls or standouts or writing letters.”
As the cars crawled by, the protesters encountered both supportive beeping as well as a few choice words out of vehicles with Trump bumper stickers.
“This is really about visibility,” said protester Kirsten Helmer, 63, of Springfield. “Keeping it in people's awareness – what is going on in this country?”
Helmer was carrying a sign that said “My freedom of speech equals your freedom of speech.”
“What we have seen these last few weeks, there's more and more an erosion of constitutional rights,” she said. “The press is being attacked. I mean, we have seen that Kimmel has been canceled,[Editor's note: Kimmel has been suspended) Colbert has been canceled. And these are just like the tip of the iceberg.”
Helmer, who’s an educator, recently became a U.S. citizen. She grew up in Germany where the country has spent decades processing its own complicity in the Holocaust and the rise of fascism during World War II.
“One of the things that I have been asked throughout my life is, how could it happen in Germany? Why didn't the German people do anything? What would you have done?” Helmer said.
“And honestly, I never thought that in my 60s I would be fighting fascism in my chosen country, in the United States,” she said, “that has been a beacon of hope for freedom, for liberty, for pursuit of happiness, for democracy.”
Lori Tisdell, one of the event organizers, said she hopes the number of sign-holders increases this coming weekend. But she said even a small crowd gets an important message across; protest is still legal in the U.S.
“We do currently have the ability to assemble,” she said. “So we will continue to do so as long as we can.”
Eileen Pratt, the retired office worker, has encouraged her friends and family to join her and her husband on the street, but so far without success.
“They're afraid. It's fear that's keeping them away from the standouts,” she said. “They say there's too many disturbed people out there. Otherwise, I think they would come. They do feel the same way we do.”
The protesters plan to return on Saturday and Sunday to reach the last big crowds of The Big E.