Lee Ayres, the founder of D.C. Citizens, had begun planning a rally and picnic at Fort Reno Park in Tenleytown 10 days before the event. She never thought “in a million years” she would organize an event like this, complete with live music and food trucks.
Hundreds of people gathered at the park June 14, the same day as President Donald Trump’s controversial U.S. Army 250th Anniversary Parade, to come together as a neighborhood and hear about ways to get involved in the pro-democracy movement.
Following Trump’s presidential victory in November 2024, D.C. Citizens started organizing to increase civic engagement, track legislative and executive activity and push back against Trump’s threats to D.C.’s limited home rule.
“We feel as if celebrating America, celebrating Flag Day, celebrating the history of founding moments of our country are reflected much, much better by being with friends, being with families, having picnics in the park, listening to music, eating good food, than politicizing the military and having a show of force that we have never seen the likes of on our homeland,” Ayres said in an interview with The Eagle.
Charlotte Van Schaack, a recent American University graduate, and her parents Louise and Peter came to the event for the community. They live nearby and were excited when they received a pamphlet advertising the rally the week before.
“Democracy works when people participate, and when people want to do the work to have their voices heard and when people are responsive to that outreach,” Charlotte said.
Before the rally, groups met up on street corners throughout Northwest D.C. to wave signs to cars passing by, with honks of support filling the air. They held signs such as, “Together we will save democracy,” “Free press, free people,” “We are the one we’re waiting for: Project 2026,” “We have a Constitution, not a King,” and “250 years ago, the U.S. Army was formed to fight tyranny.”
Jeff Custer, an international broadcaster at Voice of America, was out at the intersection next to the Tenleytown - AU Metro station. The U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, was dismantled by the Trump administration in March through an executive order, effectively halting VOA’s operations. The international broadcasting state-media network is funded by the federal government but has editorial independence.
On June 21, most of the remaining staff were laid off. The next week, the layoffs were rescinded, though the administration said they will try again. VOA is in the midst of a lawsuit to bring back services.
“Truth is not treason. That’s why I’m here. That was important for me to be out here,” Custer said. “If I was working, I wouldn’t be doing this because I’m a working journalist. But this is about democracy. It really is.”
Custer told a story of meeting a man from Sierra Leone in a doctor’s office a few years ago. After hearing that Custer worked for VOA, the man thanked him and said VOA saved his life. He said he fled Sierra Leone in the early 1990s after a rebel group took over the country and shut down the media. He wouldn’t have known what was happening if not for VOA’s short-wave broadcasts.
VOA’s Persian-language services were restored two weeks ago following Israeli airstrikes on Iran. Dozens of staffers, including those who worked on Farsi programming, were called back to work hours after the strikes began, according to CNN. The employees have since been laid off, according to the Associated Press.
“They said that we were unsalvageable and that we were a bloat and a waste and archaic, and then suddenly when there’s an emergency, they call us back in,” Custer said. “They realize the value of what we did and what we do.”
Rising seniors in AU’s School of Public Affairs Aidan Palmer and Matthew Vigneau stood at the same intersection to “be in solidarity with people all around the country who are standing up to this fascist administration and their attacks on our democracy and on our neighbors,” Vigneau said.
“The president threatened violence against protesters if they protested his little parade downtown,” Palmer said. “So I feel like if we decided to stay home, that would be doing a disservice to people who are protesting outside of the District.”
Vigneau emphasized that community means neighbors helping neighbors.
He said that whether someone was born in the U.S. or came here yesterday, he is going to stand up for their right to live and have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness like every other American.
Lori Woehrle, BA/School of Communication and SPA ‘80, helped organize the rally and thinks it’s important for people who support democracy to have their voices heard. Woehrle said democracy means freedom of the press, freedom of discussion and the freedom to hear and have different opinions without feeling threatened.
“I want the administration to know that there is another side of our story as a country,” Woehrle said. “The administration needs to hear from us as well.”
Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important to have “person-to-person” community, according to Ayres. That’s how local communities are built and how we inform each other of the dangers that are occurring.
Democracy is “messy and chaotic” but this is what D.C. Citizens are fighting for. To not have oppression, to not have to conform to what people think is the right way, to be free enough to say and think and do what one wants, Ayres said.
“We’re in crazy times and we rose to meet the moment,” Ayres said. “I think it’s just a reflection of how strongly we are all bonded together over these civic values that we have, and over this pro-democracy movement that we want to grow and we want to protect.”
This article was edited by Gabrielle McNamee, Neil Lazurus, Owen Auston-Babcock and Walker Whalen. Copy editing done by Sabine Kanter-Huchting.
