{"id":22885,"date":"2025-04-02T15:50:37","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T21:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/its-time-for-the-american-people-to-wake-up-cortez-will-participate-in-national-protest\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:18:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:18:59","slug":"its-time-for-the-american-people-to-wake-up-cortez-will-participate-in-national-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/its-time-for-the-american-people-to-wake-up-cortez-will-participate-in-national-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s time for the American people to wake up\u2019: Cortez will participate in national protest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=705370ae-e9d5-5ab1-bf42-79c8db314e91&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1612\" height=\"1128\" alt=\"Marchers in The People\u2019s March approach the Community Center in Cortez, where they stopped and waved flags and signs on Jan. 18. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to The Journal)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Marchers in The People\u2019s March approach the Community Center in Cortez, where they stopped and waved flags and signs on Jan. 18. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>A protest against the Trump administration is happening across the nation on Saturday, April 5, and there will be one in Cortez, too.<\/p>\n<p>Organizers described it as a \u201cpeaceful mass activation in defiance of the Trump-Musk billionaire takeover and the Republican assault on our freedoms and our communities,\u201d according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/local-news\/2025\/04\/01\/hands-off-protest-boston\/\" id=\"link-3f93eae98e675d1e346c7add0b9f826a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an article by the <em id=\"emphasis-c4757f714dd9f1ebc6f1277e397752da\">Washingtonian<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Bigger cities across America are preparing for thousands to demonstrate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not just Colorado or Southwest Colorado \u2013 this protest is nationwide, and it\u2019s generated because there\u2019s such concern about what\u2019s being done by the administration,\u201d said Karen Sheek, president of the League of Women Voters of Montezuma County.<\/p>\n<p>The local Hands Off! protest is set to start at 10:30 a.m., rain or shine, in the Welcome Center parking lot in Cortez.<\/p>\n<p>Protesters are asked to park on side streets or at the Rec Center \u2013 to leave spaces for tourists at the Welcome Center \u2013 and to bring signs and wear red, white and blue.<\/p>\n<p>From the Welcome Center, protesters will march down Main Street and convene on North Market Street to listen to a few speakers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-pdf-embed\"><iframe class=\"article-pdf\" src=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/pPj81S8XgtxkZrhRWq1s3wbYC2w.pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:500px;border:1px solid #ddd\" loading=\"lazy\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/pPj81S8XgtxkZrhRWq1s3wbYC2w.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LWVMZ Poster.pdf (Download PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/iframe>\n<p class=\"naviga-pdf-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/pPj81S8XgtxkZrhRWq1s3wbYC2w.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LWVMZ Poster.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sheek said they\u2019re still securing the speakers, and that they\u2019ll talk about different things happening federally and how it impacts us locally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow much of this can\u2019t be fixed, even if they realize they\u2019ve made a mistake? What damage is irreparable?\u201d she questioned. \u201cIn my perspective, part of the purpose in doing this is to make everyone aware of these things, and how everyone is in jeopardy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cuts to Medicaid, for instance, threaten our rural hospital. Workers with \u201coutstanding evaluations\u201d are being fired, she said.<\/p>\n<p>The federal cuts \u201cwon\u2019t hurt the Elon Musks and Donald Trumps of the world. If I had a billion dollars, I wouldn\u2019t have to worry about health care or Social Security either,\u201d said Sheek.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was very partisan,\u201d Sheek laughed. \u201cBut if it was a Democrat doing these things, I\u2019d say the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Protesters are asked not to engage with anyone that may taunt or harass them during the march.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a peaceful gathering and we\u2019re exercising our right to assemble and freedom of speech,\u201d Sheek said. \u201cWhat they\u2019re doing (at a federal level) is troubling, and it\u2019s time for the American people to wake up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday, protesters are meeting at the city\u2019s Welcome Center <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77888,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22885\/revisions\/77888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22885"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}