First UUs Answer the National Call to Action

First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego showed up in force for the Hand's Off protest Saturday April 5, 2025 in downtown San Diego, the largest protest in San Diego yet against the actions of the current presidential administration, with many participants estimating the total size of the crowd well exceeding 30,000, and perhaps as large as 50,000. Signs were ubiquitous and chants were persistent. The march continued far beyond its official ending point, as protestors eagerly proceeded for more than twice the length organizers envisioned while ending up rallying once again at the starting point, the Civic Center Plaza. Protestors addressed a vast array of specific issues, including devastating cuts to government agencies and the firing of massive numbers of federal workers; attacks on fundamental labor union rights; rounding up and deporting of immigrants while engaging in cruel and callous efforts to intimidate and indeed terrorize entire immigrant communities; outrageous efforts to render transgender and non-binary people legally non-existent; threats to the continued availability of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; and slashing of funding for essential healthcare funding and scientific research. Protesters expressed outrage at the administration's undermining of democracy and replacing this with autocracy; the administration's championing the interests of billionaires over those of the vast majority of the American people; the administration's attempt to rewrite history so as to exclude if not eliminate all contesting positions and all dissenting voices; the administration's assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion, along with the administration's overt racism, sexism, and ableism; and the administration effectively isolating the United States by deliberately antagonizing erstwhile international friends and allies. As organizers declared: Hands Off immigrants! Hands Off worker rights! Hands Off clean energy! Hands Off Medicare! Hands Off libraries! Hands Off schools! Hands Off postal workers! Hands Off housing! Hands Off the courts! Hands Off science! Hands Off unions! Hands Off personal data! Hands Off free speech! Hands Off gun violence prevention! Hands Off consumer protection! Hands Off LGBTQ+ rights! Hands Off veteran services! Hands Off our bodies! Hands Off Social Security! Hands Off our wallets! Hands Off Medicaid! Hands Off public lands! Hands Off cancer research! Hands Off our jobs! Hands Off clean air! Hands Off fair elections! Hands Off Greenland! Hands Off Canada! The downtown San Diego protest joined others in more than 1400 locations, in all 50 U.S. states as well as the District of Columbia, drawing well over three million participants and comprising the largest protest in the United States since the response to George Floyd's police murder in the summer of 2020 and the Women's March in January 2017.

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