Since President Donald J. Trump began enacting his discriminatory policies in February, Lawrence citizens have been protesting on Massachusetts Street against his administration. Despite high attendance, organizer Robin Gingerich said there isn’t enough youth representation at the demonstrations according to our previous article on the protests.
“For people my age, we’ve experienced this a lot. [Gen Z] hasn’t had the draft, they’ve always had birth control pills, so it’s hard for them to understand why this is so serious,” Gingerich said. “I don’t want to be in a position where I’m telling young people what to do because they are living in a different world than we are.”
Sophomore Signe Hoke is one of the few youth participating in these protests. Hoke said she chooses to attend in order to use her voice to show her support for women and minorities affected by President Donald J. Trump’s policies.
With her seeing mostly people older than her at the protests, Hoke said she is disappointed to see little to no involvement from her peers because they are the main demographic who will be affected by these policies in the near future.
“Most people either don’t know what’s going on or they think it’s embarrassing to go,” Hoke said. “I wish it wasn’t like that because all of [Trump’s] policies…they are affecting us.”
On the other hand, one anonymous student, who has attended the protests, said they think their peers find modern politics too overwhelming and that’s the reason for the lack of student attendance.
“A lot of people just think this is how it’s been and it seems like one person is too small to actually cause real changes, but I still think it’s important to have to be able to speak up,” The anonymous student said.
Despite their own anxieties, the anonymous student said they choose to participate in the protests to feel like they are making a difference in discrimination they see in their community.
“I was inspired to go to these protests because I want to feel like I’m helping,” Anonymous said. “I want to be able to express how I feel, and I feel like protesting helps”
Similarly, Hoke said that attending the protests and finding like minded people makes her feel better about her concerns of the state of the nation.
“When you’re going, you’ll find people that are thinking the same things as you and that creates a little [validation],” Hoke said. ”It’s really good, even to go once or twice…to be able to be in a safe environment and speak your mind.”
