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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Emergency Archive
Description
An account of the resource
Writing, images, recordings, and other materials documenting life in Central Maine during the COVID-19 pandemic and other historic events that have impacted our communities.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020
2021
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Penobscot County (Me.)
Piscataquis County (Me.)
Somerset County (Me.)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Communities
COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Hartland Public Library (Hartland, Me.)
Newport Cultural Center (Newport, Me.)
Pittsfield Public Library (Pittsfield, Me.)
Skowhegan Free Public Library (Skowhegan, Me.)
Thompson Free Library (Dover-Foxcroft, Me.)
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Jason Curran
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Ruth Griffith
Location
The location of the interview
Sangerville (Me.)
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
<b>RG: </b><span style="font-weight:400;">I'm Ruth Griffith. I live in Parkman, Maine, which is one town over from Guilford, and I'm sixteen years old. In the middle of March I was in school, and then they told us that we were going to have a two-week break from school because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I don't think it was called the pandemic at that time, but we took a break from school. They told us that we wouldn't be coming back until the next school year in the fall, but we didn't really know any specifics about what was going to happen in the future. We were just told to stay away from people and wear masks when we were in close contact with anyone.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">I didn't see my friends, and I haven't seen most of them, for the last six months because it's almost September right now. We've been in contact with different forms of social media, especially Snapchat and FaceTime, so I can still see them, and hear their voice, and everything like that, just not any in-person interaction. It definitely felt--I would say sad, but I also knew that it wouldn't last forever, and that I could still communicate with my friends in many ways. So it wasn't like I was completely socially-isolated. I looked at the maps every day, of where new cases were popping up, and where they were having spikes, and then I just looked at the news every day to see what was going on. Mostly just the news, like with the Apple news app, as well as--my mom's always playing NPR, and whatever I see on TV or in the newspaper.<br /></span><br /><b>JC:</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> Are topics of the administration, impeachment, are these things that you talk about with your friends?<br /></span><br /><b>RG:</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> No. No, most of my friends aren't that concerned with any of those things. <br /></span><br /><b>JC:</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> The instances of Ahmaud Arbery, and then later George Floyd?<br /></span><br /><b>RG:</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> I think that those two instances definitely sparked a lot of conversation, but my friends and I were definitely on opposing sides. Because I thought that "All Lives Matter" soon as "Black Lives Matter," because white people are not being targeted because of the color of their skin, but people of color are. And my friends did not see it the same way as I did. So a lot of them just said, "White Lives Matter" and "All Lives Matter." They didn't really express more than that. <br /></span><br /><b>JC:</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> Did you ever take the conversation any further than that?<br /></span><br /><b>RG:</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> I've tried, but not successfully.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight:400;">I heard that the President was going to come to Guilford, maybe like a week in advance. I saw it first on someone's Snapchat story, and then I Googled it right after that and found out that it was true. At that point he didn't know whether he was going to visit Guilford or Pittsfield, so I knew that he would be coming to our general area. I felt kind of neutral at that point, because I didn't know that there would be any organized event for protesting or anything like that. So I just wanted to see how things developed in the following days.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">I decided that I wanted to be in Guilford as soon as I knew that there was going to be some sort of organized protest where there would be other people there for the same purpose. And I decided that I wanted to go because I think that it's important to speak up in situations of injustice, and I think that protesting is a very good way to do that. I think what motivated all of this to happen was when George Floyd died, and I think that was one of the major motivations. And then it's just about trying to end systematic injustices, and systematic racism in the United States.<br /></span><br /><b>JC: </b><span style="font-weight:400;">Did you have any conversation with your friends about the visit? Did they have opinions about it?<br /></span><br /><b>RG:</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> Yeah. They were super excited because most of them are very avid Trump supporters. So a lot of them got flags to put on their trucks, and were super enthusiastic. I put it on my Snapchat story, just saying that I would be there, and then I had a few other friends comment to me after that they wanted to be there too. Or if they couldn't be there, they were giving supportive comments about that. I didn't get any negative backlash after that, no. I don't think that it would really change my relationships with other people because we don't talk that much about politics. We leave that separate in our friendships, but it definitely is important to know what other people's opinions of different things are.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight:400;">I definitely read a lot of threats, but I didn't think that any of them were going to be acted upon. I think that it was just people being angry and using social media as a way to express how they felt in a very non-constructive way. I didn't think that there would be any violence happening, because we are such a small area and because I knew that there would be a lot of law enforcement there. But it definitely was a possibility that something could happen.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">I didn't really plan anything else out until the morning of June fifth. Then I went to the [Unitarian Universalist] Church [of Sangerville and Dover-Foxcroft] and I made a sign. It said "Enough is Enough" on one side, and "Black Lives Matter" on the other side. From there, I went to downtown Guilford and stood with all the other protesters. One of my friends was also there, so I stood next to her. Around ten a.m., maybe eleven. At that point, there was maybe a little cluster of twenty people there with the Black Lives Matter movement, and then a much larger crowd there in support of Donald Trump.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight:400;">Okay, so there were a few helicopters that came in, like a few days before the President showed up, I think. And then that day, more helicopters flew in. Then after that, once the President's helicopter came, they put him in the motorcade, and then they had a big line of various vehicles, of law enforcement and people who were there with various equipment. I think it took like five or six minutes for all the cars to pass down the street, and they were going a very slow parade-like speed. Then the President was one of the last cars, and as soon as he got close people were screaming, and they were very excited. Most of the Black Lives Matter protesters got down on one knee and were holding their signs there, as to be respectful but make sure that it was known that they were not in support of him.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">I thought that it was really cool. The helicopters were definitely fun to watch. I think that everybody agreed, no matter what side they were on, that was a very interesting part of the day. A lot of people were very excited that they had that going on the day that they graduated at Guilford High School [Piscataquis Community High School]. Yeah, so the graduation happened later that night--I think at like seven p.m. or something like that. But definitely a lot of the things in the town closed down for the day. A lot of businesses closed down. I think the mill itself wasn't operating for a while, while he visited. A lot of people had concerns about traffic and getting through, so they cancelled different things. A lot of the kids thought that having the President at their school, or having snipers on the roof of their school, was super-exciting to happen on their graduation day. It doesn't happen a lot. <br /></span><br /><b>JC:</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> Did you see the President?<br /></span><br /><b>RG:</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> I did. So I saw him twice. Once when he drove by, going to Hardwood Products, and once when he drove away back to his helicopter. Both times he was just waving at everybody and looking at us. I don't think that he really acknowledged that we weren't in support of him, because the large majority of people were all decked out in their Trump apparel, and their MAGA [Make America Great Again] hats, and everything like that. <br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">Throughout the day there was a lot of commotion between Black Lives Matter protesters and Trump supporters. There were law enforcement everywhere, so nothing got violent at all. It was just verbal communication.<br /></span><br /><b>JC:</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> What kind of commotion in particular?<br /></span><br /><b>RG:</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> So a lot of people were very negative about wearing masks, which almost all of the Black Lives Matter protesters had on and very few of the Trump supporters had on. So there was a lot of controversy about that. Later throughout the day, Black Lives Matter people started chanting things like "Black Lives Matter" and “No Justice, No Peace," things like that. And then that was met with a lot of comments that didn't really make sense. Like we got a lot of "Get off of welfare" and "Get a job" comments. We got a few "I'd grab you by the pussy" comments, which were definitely not appreciated. And then a few people just saying "All Lives Matter” and expressing their opinion about that.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">A lot of people were saying that masks aren't necessary; we shouldn't be wearing them; it's not really a big deal; that COVID-19 is no worse than the common flu, or that the entire thing is just a hoax. Most of the time we didn't respond to those comments, or we just said, "Thank you for your opinion; we're going to wear our masks," because we didn't want to start any fight.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">So there wasn't that big of a crowd that there was an issue for space. The only physical contact that I had were a few people with Trump flags that tried to wave them in our faces as we were walking down the street with our signs. There were a handful of people who brought their guns to downtown Guilford that day, and I know that they were in communication with all of the law enforcement there to make sure that they didn't have them loaded or anything like that. I didn't feel unsafe in any way because of that, but I definitely think that it wasn't a necessary thing to have there, to show their right of open carry. I think that it was a little bit uncomfortable for many people, especially because of the large presence of law enforcement there anyway. To have citizens with their guns out was a little bit uneasy, but it didn't really bother me that much.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">I wish that it was more centralized, or that the protests all happened in Guilford, because I think that is where most of the news coverage was. The whole idea of protesting is to get your opinion heard, and you need media sources to do that. But I think that that just happened because of all the threats that people were giving to people who did attempt to organize these events. But I decided to go to Guilford instead of going to Dover or Bangor because that's where the President was going, and I think it would be more impactful to be where he was.</span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;"><br />A lot of people on the opposing side came up to me and asked me about the masks, and I kind of just dismissed that in a very--as respectful way as I could. And then there were a lot of other comments talking about religion and why we think that “Black Lives Matter” instead of “All Lives Matter.” And then quite a few people walked over to where I was standing and asked about completely unrealted issues, like health care and abortion. Which, I just said, “Have a nice day," and didn't engage.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">There was a little bit of them trying to understand the conversation, but most people were very set in what they already believed in, and they were just arguing for whatever they believed prior to coming. For people that I was protesting with, we were all fairly like-minded people. We disagreed on a few little things. I met one girl who was from Rhode Island and she drove up here after she got her COVID test to protest. She had a lot of insight, definitely, about what she had seen throughout the country protesting, which was really cool to hear. They experienced a lot more violence where she was. And then I talked to a lot of other locals who were there, and a lot of them had similar feelings to me, just that they wanted to voice their opinions about the Black Lives Matter movement and do it in a way that would get their voices heard.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">Yeah, so it definitely made me very mad when people said comments that were just ignorant or not at all related to why we were there. There were a few people who had good conversations that I think are great to have, but there were a lot of people who were there just to start controversy and to make people angry. Like I said before: "Get off of welfare," and "Get a real job," things about healthcare and abortion, people saything they would want to grab me by the pussy. So I didn't respond to anyone who made those sort of comments, because I think that the majority of people that were there as Trump supporters would just say comments like "Trump 2020" or "All Lives Matter' or "White Lives Matter," which I disagree with, but I think that it's them just stating what they believe in politically, which is exactly what I was doing just for a different side. But it made me mad when people said things that were not at all related, or were definitely not respectful.</span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;"><br />There were a lot of local police officers, as well as a lot of people from the border control. I think that they were very respectful to everyone there. None of them obviously chose a side of where they would stand, they were just in like their uniforms. When the President drove by, they were a little bit more focused on keeping the Black Lives Matter protesters away from the street, but I think that's somewhat reasonable. Overall the presence of all law enforcement was very respectful and they treated everyone equally.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">I think that our area is definitely mostly very, very conservative. And I think that throughout the entire country, everything's very polarized of either your left or your right. So having a more liberal opinion in this area is often frowned upon, or people don't talk about it a lot, because it's not the majority of people's opinions. <br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">The friend I was with had graduated. I think she's twenty years old, so she's a little bit older than I am. But there were quite a few high schoolers from [the] Dexter and Dover high school(s) [Dexter Regional High School and Foxcroft Academy], which are the two surrounding area schools. But I believe that I was the only current student of Guilford High School who was there. There were quite a few people, though, who were in their early twenties who had graduated from high school at Guilford who were there as Black Lives Matter protesters. And then there was an abundance of people who were there who were my age or younger who were there as Trump supporters with their parents.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">During the day that I was there protesting, a lot of people from the community would give us thumbs up or peace signs in support of us and what we were doing, and then very positive comments like “You go guys," or "I love what you're doing," "I love your sign," anything like that. After the fact, a lot of my friends were saying how proud they were that we were doing something. Before they were like "Stay safe," "I might go," "I don't know yet, I haven't made up my mind," stuff like that. But in general, I didn't receive any overly-negative feedback from my peers. It definitely made me feel like more of the minority because I know a lot of people who wanted to go who are my age, but were just fearful of being different, I think, so they didn't go. But I definitely lost a lot of respect for some people I knew who made comments that were not respectful whatsoever to other people. Yeah, just people who I knew from the community.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">I think that the election right now could go either way, being that Trump could win or that Biden could win. I think that we won't really have a good idea until the day it happens, unless any major events change the political climate. I think that most people are very set on who they want to vote for because of how polarized politics are in America right now. So I think that won't really change anything.<br /></span><br /><b>JC:</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> How do you think things will change?<br /></span><br /><b>RG:</b><span style="font-weight:400;"> I think any major events that happen will change things, as well as--most people, I think, who are younger tend to lean a little bit more to the left than people who are older, just in general, and people in urban areas definitely tend to be a lot more democratic as well. So I think that a lot more people will start leaning that way, and that there will be less controversy between which side. But I think that it will never really change. For as long as we have a two-party system in America, there's always going to be one side and another side, and it's not really going to change.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">I think that for our elections, if we didn't want as much political polarization, we would definitely need time for people to adjust to everything, as well as just more parties, or just abolishment of all political parties. Because right now you either align yourself with one or the other, so it's very easy to pick a side and become very--I don't know what the word would be, but become very supportive of just that side. Yeah, I think that running on what people want to do once they are in an office, and what they as a person believe in, is definitely a lot better than what party they're behind. Especially people who vote on certain key topics. It would lead to a lot, I think, better representation. I don't think that I will go into politics in the future, no [laughs].</span>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
A President Visits Guilford, Maine: Ruth Griffith Interview
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Griffith, Ruth
Curran, Jason
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-08-30
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Guilford (Me.)
Sangerville (Me.)
Piscataquis County (Me.)
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral History
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
MP3
Language
A language of the resource
English
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Creator retains copyright. Item may be used for noncommercial purposes under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Black lives matter movement
COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-
Democracy
High school students
Protest movements
Social justice
Trump, Donald, 1946-
Description
An account of the resource
Ruth Griffith speaks with Jason Curran about President Trump's visit to Guilford on June 5, 2020.
2020
Black Lives Matter
Friendship
Guilford
High School
Justice
Masks
Politics
Protest
Students
Trump
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Emergency Archive
Description
An account of the resource
Writing, images, recordings, and other materials documenting life in Central Maine during the COVID-19 pandemic and other historic events that have impacted our communities.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020
2021
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Penobscot County (Me.)
Piscataquis County (Me.)
Somerset County (Me.)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Communities
COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Hartland Public Library (Hartland, Me.)
Newport Cultural Center (Newport, Me.)
Pittsfield Public Library (Pittsfield, Me.)
Skowhegan Free Public Library (Skowhegan, Me.)
Thompson Free Library (Dover-Foxcroft, Me.)
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Jason Curran
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Sue Griffith
Location
The location of the interview
Sangerville (Me.)
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
<span style="font-weight:400;">My name is Sue Griffith and I live in Parkman, Maine. We had word that the President would be coming to Maine, and I remember hearing that on the news and absolutely never considering it would be Guilford, Maine or the toothpick mill [Hardwood Products Company] that he would come to. But sure enough, I started to get some messages on my phone. “Can you believe this? Can you believe this?” Governor Janet Mills here in the state urged that during a pandemic, during this time of protest, maybe it wasn't the best time to plan a trip like that, and it made the President push a little harder. He absolutely insisted that he would come on a certain date. It didn't matter that it was graduation night at the local high school, where they are trying to hold a graduation outdoors anyway due to the pandemic. He was going to come. And the Secret Service showed up in town. The helicopters showed up in town.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">I became involved because the local Unitarian Universalist Church [of Sangerville and Dover-Foxcroft], my church, had a Facebook page where we started to get some inquiries about, “Would the church be open? Would the church be a presence counterprotesting?” What should have been a visit from the President to thank the workers at the mill became a defacto Trump rally. And he had chosen a very red part of the state, a very Republican part of the state, to come and visit.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">The background of this toothpick mill--by making medical supplies, it turns out they were the only domestic manufacturer of the swabs that could test for COVID-19. The medical side of the mill, it's a sister company to the toothpick mill, it's called Puritan [Medical Products]. They were working nonstop. They were working steady shifts. They worked, you know, twenty, thirty, forty days in a row without a day off. I have worked at the toothpick mill. I have worked both making the popsicle sticks and tongue depressors, in what's called the "old side" of the mill, and also in the newer, medical side of the mill. So, I could definitely understand the feeling in town of the mill finally getting its due, and that the President was coming to town to thank the folks at the mill. That did feel good to a lot of people.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight:400;">My experience during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic--as the pandemic did reach the United States, I was pretty naive to the fact that what was now a concern in Italy would shut down our schools. But that's what I experienced on March thirteenth. A teacher workshop day was rescheduled. We were kept in our own buildings instead of going to a neighboring high school, and our students never came back for the rest of the year.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">Not only was there a pandemic going on, but Ahmaud Arbery had been murdered already in Georgia, and there was video of this murder. And his murderers--even though they were on video tape and police had that in their evidence chain--they were allowed to walk free, claiming that they were standing their ground. Claiming that he had broken into a house. And none of that really holds up. In May, George Floyd's death was also videotaped. And that just seemed to be one step too far. That the whole country reacted to how the police officer watched the camera, and just absolutely felt there would be no repercussions with his actions. Because of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, and then the Black Lives Matter movement responding to that, President Trump couldn't travel anywhere in the country. The protests were overwhelming. They became international. Unfortunately some violence happened, and is still happening.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">Because of the scandals--all the turnover in the Trump administration has been unbelievable. People that he appointed and called "the best of the best"--he's had them removed or fired. We have had several secretaries of defence and secretaries of state and national security advisors. To me, I feel like we're really in a vulnerable spot. We pulled out of the Paris Accord, we pulled out of the TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership]. We've insulted NATO. Nancy Pelosi really said it right when she said, "President Trump, with you all roads lead to Russia." The corruption wasn't stopped by the impeachment, but all of that--I just absolutely knew that I would be out there alone if I had to be.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">There were lots of threats on social media. Threats as to, if Black Lives Matter shows up here, this is what's going to happen. So, the threats were geared towards rioters and looters, which is what people were seeing on television. The threats took on that racial tone as soon as Black Lives Matter came up. And the gun culture here in rural Maine is such that you knew the threats weren't empty threats. But what I was seeing on our Facebook page were requests from churchgoers who wanted to protest the President's visit. And they wondered: Would there be a cooling station? Would there be water available? Was there a map available of the area? How far a walk would it be? Where could we park?<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight:400;">I did my best to answer some of those questions, and to find more information. But placing phone calls to the town office and to the local sheriff's department, I did not get responses. Calling a second time, I did get to speak to people. And they were intrigued by this, and they certainly didn't want elderly people walking into town being overcome by the heat. But when I was promised that somebody would call me back, of course there was no call back. And by that time it was Thursday, June fourth. The president was coming the next day.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight:400;">Protesters were told to go protest in Dover, the next-door town, or to protest in Bangor when the President's plane landed. But for a lot of folks, they knew that they were being kept out of the way. They were being sent elsewhere. I was hopeful that this could be a moment for our church to be there for folks who weren't as enthusiastic about the President's visit. Personally, a lot of us wanted some kind of response like a candlelight vigil. But during a pandemic, in a UU church that is mostly senior citizens, we could not come together and really discuss or plan. A few folks were able to gather at the church and make signs together. We made some of the signs thanking the "Swab Squad," the folks at the mill who were making the swabs. That was the whole reason for the President's trip.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">The next day, about half a dozen folks gathered at the church for a short, mile-and-a-half walk to where the presidential motorcade would leave the local high school, travel to the mill, and then back again. The high school soccer field became the chosen, preferred landing spot. From there to the toothpick mill is probably about a mile's drive. We knew to expect them about three o'clock in the afternoon. For the protesters, we all took a knee when we heard the choppers, when the motorcade went by. But we felt solidarity together for the counter protesters, and the Trumpers were definitely loving the noise and the show of force. The state troopers were giving an escort, so sixty troopers on motorcycles were escorting the President's motorcade. They got a huge reaction from the crowd as they kind of strutted their stuff. And it was the same for the choppers.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">But the people who were there, where I was protesting. We were a few of us, a half dozen of us from a local Unitarian Universalist church, but we were surrounded by folks who had traveled from Southern Maine mostly. Veterans for Peace. There were educators. A school principal complimented my daughter and my friend who stood there all day in that heat, wearing masks, holding up signs that said "Enough is Enough." Those girls, when they were encountered by Trumpers, they were told to get a job. They were told to get off welfare. And these are girls who are at the top of their class, who have held jobs for years even though they are just teenagers. But the assumptions that were made were disappointing.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">As I walked along what locally we call the Braeburn Corner, I was so relieved. I had not planned to meet anybody until eleven o'clock. But people had been there since seven a.m., nine a.m. People had traveled from local towns like Brownville and Willimantic. They came with “Black Lives Matter” signs, they came with signs about truth, they came with signs about all the scandals in the administration. And despite the heat, they held onto that corner. They were the presence that he would see--in a packed half-mile of Trump supporters and Trump merchandise, this one corner was held visibly.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">As his motorcade went by, law enforcement did their best to step in front of the protesters and block that view. So Trump saw very little of the counter protesters. We were definitely outnumbered. Probably ten to one. But we were visible. As much as the Trumpers wanted to support their president, and support the work of the mill, I think the rest of us were there to make sure that our hometown didn't go down in history as supporting the racist legacy that this administration is going to have.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">There definitely was some tension. For most of the day, people were very polite. Our signs did not say "Black Lives Matter" specifically, and I think some people didn't know what our signs meant. But we had signs that said, “Truth Matters,” and the Trumpers seemed to like that. When they saw the “Truth Matters” signs, they agreed with us, which we found a little confusing. We also carried "Grab ‘Em by the Ballot." We were making light of Trump's own quote that came out before the 2016 election, when he used an expletive, "grab 'em by the--" But Trumpers seemed to like that too. “Grab ‘Em by the Ballot.” They thought that was supporting Trump. I guess they didn't recognize the reference.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">But our signs that did get recognized: “Ahmaud Arbery,” “George Floyd,” and “I Can't Breathe.” Those signs drew a different reaction. Some people just grew silent and walked away. Some folks called us the enemy. Some folks told us, "Keep your masks on; you're ugly." "Keep your masks on; you got bad breath." Probably the worst: When the motorcade had gone through to the mill, a lot of Trumpers started to leave town. And one woman saw our sign "I Can't Breathe," and she took her entire--to move just fifteen feet past us took quite a while. And she took that as a chance to yell all kinds of insults and challenges to that position. Mostly, aborted fetuses, she argued, could not breathe as well.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">Here in Piscataquis County people feared that it would become violent. The local credit union didn't open that day. A lot of people felt like it wasn't safe to be in town that day. I felt like, you've got to be realistic about this. It could become violent. My teenage daughter said she wanted to be there, which surprised me, but I absolutely did not want to discourage her from being there. I really felt it was that important to stand up to what this administration had been doing, and to take a stand for the truth. My teenage daughter was told that she would have to stay with her mother for the day, which is not something she's been told for a long time. I put together some first aid supplies. Her father has a building in town, his shop is where he works most days. That was the go-to plan, if things got out of hand she knew where she was supposed to be. And she was to be with me most of the day. We also had some vehicles not too far away, a short walk. We would be able to get into a vehicle and hopefully get out of harm's way. So I felt like there were enough options to get out of harm's way that we could be there to express ourselves.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">The biggest concern I had, there were a lot of folks who were armed. Trump supporters gave way to two different sections of what I'll call Black Lives Matter/counter-Trump supporters. I was pretty psyched to be in a spot that was in a lot of shade. And with my teenage daughter with me, I felt like we were in a pretty safe spot. Some bikers pulled onto the grass next to us and they were all armed. Just--they had pistols, wearing holster open-carry style. Very clear about the fact that they had their weapons. And then there were some folks with Trump flags and American flags with AR-15s, just kind of walking back and forth. Making sure--there was a little bit of challenge to space there at the side of the road. The flag pretty much hit us every time they walked by.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">The law enforcement was local sheriffs and state troopers, a lot of visiting sheriffs from surrounding counties, and a lot of border control. When counter protesters were challenged for being on the sidewalk and asked to move back, and then Trumpers were allowed to remain on the sidewalk in front of them, that was the only kind of negotiation I saw. With patience and persistence the Trumpers drifted off and the counter protesters reclaimed that curbside. But I was a little disappointed to see that law enforcement, pretty much elbow-to-elbow, stood in the street and blocked the view of a lot of the counter protesters as the motorcade went by. But that's their job. That's the security they had to provide. And if it helped keep things calm, I guess I'm glad for it.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight:400;">Maine is a constitutional carry state. It was legal to have those weapons on display and openly carried. But guess I don't think that's what the Second Amendment means. To me, the words "well regulated" are right in the Second Amendment. "In order to maintain a well-regulated militia, the right to bear arms shall not be infringed." So I was not comfortable with that display of force. None of the counter protesters felt a need to carry a weapon openly.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">On June fifth, in Guilford, Maine, the counter protesters were predominantly wearing masks and social distancing as much as they could. And the folks who were there to support the President in his visit were not. Luckily the President's visit did not lead to an increase in the virus. Unfortunately, his next big rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, did. And one supporter, Herman Cain, even attended that Oklahoma rally and now has passed away from the virus. So that connection did happen elsewhere, but so far in Maine we have been lucky in the summer of 2020 to keep the numbers low.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">The feedback has been, I think, quiet from the folks who are Trump supporters. Which there is still--in this part of the state of Maine--there is still a lot of support for him. I guess the New England sensibility of "we'll agree to disagree" is in full play right now. But at our church I think there was a lot of coming together. People who were older and not up for that crowd--or not going to put themselves in that crowd during a pandemic--I think there was a lot of appreciation that somebody was there. The folks who worked at the mill went through so much security and so much overtime to accommodate that visit, that I think they took it a little more personally if they found out somebody was protesting. But I was usually able to find a way to say, you know,"Boy, the President should have been here just to thank you, but I think he was here to have a rally because he couldn't have his rallies anywhere else.” I think that was also understood.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:400;">A lot of folks left town as soon as the motorcade had gone to the mill, and it was a lighter crowd that remained as the motorcade returned to the helicopters and as the helicopters left. But that was about the time that a lot of more counter protesters were able to show up from Bangor or Dover and there was a huge feeling of solidarity and relief. I wish personally that we could have opened up our church for a candlelight vigil afterwards. I think there would have been a lot of people to share the emotion of that week. But of course, the pandemic prevented that. I was very proud of the folks who were able to get out there that day and make sure that we could thank the folks at the mill, but we weren't going to give our town to that president.</span>
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
A President Visits Guilford, Maine: Sue Griffith Interview
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Griffith, Sue
Curran, Jason
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-08-06
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Guilford (Me.)
Sangerville (Me.)
Piscataquis County (Me.)
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral History
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
MP3
Language
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English
Rights
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Creator retains copyright. Item may be used for noncommercial purposes under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Black lives matter movement
COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-
Democracy
First Universalist Church of Sangerville & Dover-Foxcroft
Protest movements
Social justice
Trump, Donald, 1946-
Description
An account of the resource
Sue Griffith speaks with Jason Curran about President Trump's visit to Guilford on June 5, 2020.
2020
Black Lives Matter
Church
Justice
Masks
Protest
Solidarity
Trump