Members of Morgan County Indivisible participated in this protest event in Martinsburg.
Protestors hold signs outside Rep. Riley Moore’s office in Martinsburg.
Photo by Tom Markland
By Tom Markland, The Journal News
MARTINSBURG — Dozens of local protesters braved cold, windy weather on Thursday morning to stand together in protest of policies pushed by President Donald Trump’s administration.
They started at around 10 a.m. in front of Rep. Riley Moore’s office on Winchester Avenue, which officially opened just a few weeks ago. The office was closed at the time of the protest. Later, they moved to stand in front of U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito’s office on Foxcroft Avenue.
Several of the protesters decided to attend just the day before, after seeing a story from the Associated Press concerning an internal memo from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which allegedly discusses the cutting of over 80,000 jobs from the organization. The large majority of the protesters were local, with some coming from as far as Berkeley Springs. …
One veteran, Ron Wenger, came out wearing a camouflage jacket and a hat with a Purple Heart combat wounded pin on it. He served in the military for 37 years, both active duty and reserve, in places like Vietnam and the Gulf War. He said the disrespect from the current administration is going to have an impact on future generations.
“It’s not worth fighting for this country anymore if people are going to come along and do this to veterans,” Wenger said. “I also have some Ukrainian heritage, and I’ve never been more disgusted with the United States and the way we’re acting towards a small country than I am now.”
Thursday’s protest was the fourth like it in the Eastern Panhandle in just two weeks, following protests in Charles Town and Martinsburg on Friday and a protest at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, which brought out over 100 people to the park’s train station on Saturday.
One of the organizers of Thursday’s protest was Stewart Acuff, a retired union organizer with the United Steelworkers Union. Acuff said he’s been impressed with both the turnout to the protests and the response from the community.
“This is the fourth demonstration I’ve been to in two weeks, and we’re very happy with the response to all of them,” Acuff said. “It’s a cold, raw, late winter day, and we’ve got several dozen people with us, and they’ve gone to two different places today.
“We take pride in being one of the communities that first stood up as people across the country were beginning to stand up,” Acuff added.
Acuff said the goal with a protest like Thursday’s is to raise awareness for the issues of the day and prepare people to go out and vote in 2026.
“It’s about getting on the pathway to freedom again,” Acuff said. “This is not just a one-day, two-days, two-weeks or three-weeks thing. It’s really about restoring our democracy but also expanding our democracy.”
See the Article at The Journal News.