Residents of Sunrise Senior Living, members of a newly formed group called Senior Action to Save Democracy, demonstrate outside their building on North End Avenue. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
Thousands across the country attended May Day demonstrations against Trump administration policies. Less mobile, perhaps, but just as energized and vocal were 40 Battery Park City seniors. Wheelchairs, walkers and canes be damned.
With signs aloft and chanting slogans like “save our ailing republic,” these protesters, most in their 80s and 90s, gathered in front of Sunrise Senior Living, their residence on North End Avenue, to demonstrate against the current direction of the country. In all their many years, they said, they have never seen anything like this.
Video by Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
Joan Boyers, 92, recalled being part of street protests against McCarthyism in the 1950s. “[Trump’s actions] are analogous to those times in the sense that they’re based on fear—anger and fear,” she said. “But this is even worse.”
“I’m an old lady and I don’t talk as well,” said Bunny Gilbert, 94. But on one point she was very clear. “We’re in a land that’s going downhill now instead of uphill. We have a dictator, literally.”
The last time Sylvia Russo demonstrated was in the 1960s, when she walked a picket line with other striking teachers. “No one has been as bad as Trump, not to do damage like this,” she said. “And to create an upheaval in people's lives.”
The demonstration was organized by a newly formed group at (but not by) Sunrise Senior Living called Senior Action to Save Democracy. A recent well-attended visit from Rep. Dan Goldman, who talked about efforts to fight the Trump administration, inspired some of the residents to start the committee.
“All of a sudden a whole bunch of us realized that we needed to do something ourselves,” said Bill Mitchell, 87, a former anthropology professor who helped organize the group.
“Goldman galvanized me because I didn't think he was doing enough,” he added. “If he isn't doing enough, well, what am I doing?”
The group meets every other Friday. “We’re going to write letters, we’re going to contact politicians, and we are going to raise consciousness,” Mitchell said. “We need to act to save American democracy, to prevent autocracy, to prevent the decimation of the country that I was born into and that I love. So if we want to do something, we can’t stand by.”
Towards the end of the demonstration, Mitchell led the singing of a few verses of “We Shall Overcome.” Then a slow procession of protesters began making their way back into the building.
“Folks,” Mitchell called to them, “let us save the signs for our next time. I hope we won’t need them again, but my guess is we will.”