That was from commenter Van on Steve’s post that was headlined “300+ Attend #ReOpenNH Rally In Concord (Lots of Pictures)”. Indeed, my comments from an interview with Catherine Triomphe of AFP (Agence France-Presse, the French news wire service similar to AP and UPI here in the US, and not Americans for Prosperity) did make to to Breitbart as well as to Yahoo News. I had arrived early to Concord on Saturday before the ReOpenNH rally and was strolling about when the AFP photographer, who had parked behind me, asked I’d be willing to talk with his reporter.
Sure! While I couldn’t find the original report on AFP (I just called Catherine and she will be sending me the link she was supposed to send me on Saturday when she is done with the Harrisberg rally she’s at right now), here is the report from Breitbart (reformatted, emphasis mine):
(AFP) – Hundreds of people demonstrated Saturday in cities across America against coronavirus-related stay-at-home rules — with the explicit encouragement of President Donald Trump — as resentment against prolonged confinement grew. An estimated 400 people gathered under a cold rain in Concord, New Hampshire — many on foot while others remained in their cars — to send a message that extended quarantines were not necessary in a state with relatively few confirmed cases of COVID-19, an AFP photographer reported.
A similar rally outside Maryland’s colonial-era statehouse in Annapolis drew around 200 protesters. And more than 250 people showed up in the Texas capital of Austin, as such protests continued to spread. They drew encouragement in certain Democratic-led states from tweets by Trump — who has said he favors a quick return to normal practices — though protests have also taken place in Republican-led states like New Hampshire.
In Concord, demonstrators carried signs with slogans like “The numbers lie” or “Reopen New Hampshire.” Their common demand was that the stay-at-home order for the state of 1.3 million people be called off before its scheduled May 4 end date.
‘Live Free or Die’
Others, amid a sea of American flags, chanted the state’s Revolutionary War-era slogan, “Live Free or Die.” Among the demonstrators were several armed men wearing face-covering hoods, the AFP journalist noted.
“People are very happy on a voluntary basis to do what’s necessary,” one demonstrator, 63-year-old Skip Murphy, told AFP by phone. He added, however, that “the data does not support the egregious lockdown we are having in New Hampshire.” He said only the southeastern part of the state, near the Boston metropolitan area, had an elevated incidence of the disease, and he argued that the rest of the state, with far fewer cases, should be exempted from confinement orders.
As of Friday morning, New Hampshire had reported 1,287 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 37 deaths.
‘Free country’
“What about our constitutional rights?” Murphy said. “All over the country, a lot of people are saying, ‘We will do our part, but at the same time this is supposed to be a free country.’ “When that gets transgressed, people start to say, ‘Wait a minute, this is wrong.’”
Most Americans — by a two-to-one margin — actually worry about virus restrictions being lifted too soon, not too late, a recent Pew survey found. But demonstrators found encouragement Friday from the president himself, who in a series of tweets called to “LIBERATE” Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia — all states with Democratic governors — from stay-at-home orders.
Trump has repeatedly called for the earliest possible return to normality as virus-related closings have had a crushing impact on American workers and businesses. But public health officials warn that too quick an easing of restrictions could allow a disastrous resurgence of the virus. The largest protest against stay-at-home rules so far took place Wednesday in the Michigan capital of Lansing, where some 3,000 people demonstrated against confinement orders from Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Murphy said he had voted for Trump, but insisted his motives were not partisan. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu is a Republican, he noted. “This has nothing to do with Trump or the Democrat and Republican governors,” Murphy said. “It is a case of one size not fitting all — the lockdown should cease where it does not make sense.”
Almost as if to bolster my remarks, TMEW called me down from my office to show me the segment that WMUR had done on the rally. Part of it was a map of the US showing all of the Kung Flu cases all over the US – it was clear that the NY / NJ / CT / RI / MA incidents was a huge blot of red on the Eastern seaboard. Add in Michigan as well.
NH, not so much. ALSO, once you looked at the Western States (sans CA and WA), it was barren of red. WHY should those states, extremely rural and sparse of any kind of density similar to that of the East Coast, be treated the same as NY & NJ?
WHY should the more rural areas of NH be treated the same as our southeastern corner of the state abutting MA? It makes no sense.
“When that gets transgressed“…indeed. Yes, States have much latitude in what they can do, the Feds not so much AS LONG AS both remain within their Constitutional bounds. NO ordinance, NO regulation, NO statute should ever transgress the Constitutions these governor chuckleheads / self-aggrandizing tin-pots despots swore an oath to defend and protect. That not only goes to the Letter of these legal (and not guidelines and not “living” documents) documents but the Spirit thereof.
In their perceived role as “protectors”, they have invoked (and I repeat myself) the foreign idea that we are but children to be taken care of by Government. Patronized. Paternalized. Grokster Ian called it husbandry. European style governments have had this outlook since they were formed.
Gosh, we had a Revolution to dismiss that notion out of hand. Our current state of affairs?
Sidenote: the AFP piece mentions the armed attendees to the NH Rally. What it failed to mention was the notion of armed rebellion is ensconced in our NH Constitution in Article 10. While it may sound “militant” (and commenter “Commonsense033” has already proven himself disgusted that people came openly armed…
Sidenote – here in the Constitutional Carry State (re: we don’t have to ASK FOR PERMISSION to carry weapons for self-defense), I’m betting that at least half the crowd was carrying anyways.
..sometimes, politicians need to be reminded of that.
