COASTAL OBSERVER

A crowd estimated at around 500 people walked the Bike the Neck path along Highway 17 in Pawleys Island as part of a national protest against Trump administration policies, drawing cheers and jeers from passing drivers.

The protesters were told by Georgetown County sheriff’s deputies that they needed to keep moving and not block the path, so they marched back and forth between the North and South Causeways – some pushing strollers, others pushing walkers, most carrying signs – for about two hours Saturday morning.  What was unclear to some was where they go next.

“I was hopeful for 100. This is empowering,” said Mark Bayer, who heads the local chapter of PFLAG, Parents Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

He was in Washington, D.C., earlier in the week for protests.

“The passion and commitment were equal to what I saw in D.C.,” Bayer said.

The Hands Off protest was launched by a coalition of national organizations and drew support from local groups.

Kathy McGrogan, a Georgetown resident, organized the march at Pawleys Island after hearing the columnist Ezra Klein talk about it on MSNBC. She signed up as a host through Indivisible, a progressive group.

“I thought, oh, you’ll get about 50 or 100 people,” McGrogan said. “Every day, I was getting 20 to 30 people registering.”

Registration ramped up in the two days before the march, which also coincided with the announcement of wide-ranging tariffs on imports.

“I don’t know if it was the tariffs  or the fact that this was getting closer,” McGrogan said.

Over 500 people registered, but McGrogan said it was unlikely all of those actually attended. But she heard of some people who came from Charleston, where the Hands On march was canceled for lack of a permit.

The sheriff’s office contacted McGrogan as word of the event spread. The bike path was the scene of a march organized by a Waccamaw High student after the 2020 murder of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. A former Waccamaw student organized a march for abortion rights along the same route after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The route fit the bill for Hands Off because it provided high visibility and didn’t require a permit, McGrogan said.

“We called the organizer,” Major Melvin Garrett of the sheriff’s office said. “What do you plan? What do you hope to accomplish.”

They planned for a crowd of 1,000.

“We didn’t have 1,000,” Garrett said.

But he had about 20 deputies on foot and in vehicles along the route. Deputies and marchers were expecting counter-protesters. Garrett saw a couple. McGrogan saw none.

Lt. Jim Ketchum said a woman complained to him about the protesters. He explained that it was their First Amendment right to protest and that people who felt differently could organize a march of their own.

“There was a lot of applause, a lot of cheers, a few fingers,” Bayer said. “What I’m loving, too, is seeing a lot of young people coming out.”

McGrogan is a retired mental health counselor. She walked with her daughter and granddaughter, carrying a sign that said Hands Off Social Security on one side and the National Weather Service on the other.

Another marcher stopped McGrogan to say the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration app on her phone was no longer working. “Isn’t that something,” the woman said.

“How could you not be in favor of getting hands off the weather service, when we rely on them for hurricane forecasts,” McGrogan said.

Marchers could print out signs online, but many went hands on. Marla Fabian of Pawleys Island drew flowers labeled with “kindness,” “love” and other positive characteristics. “Proud to be woke,” was the message with a figure of a bee in place of the verb.

“We’re peaceful people,” she said.

Another marcher’s sign featured a drawing of the Canadian flag. “Hands off my country,” it said.

The were also real flags: rainbow flags, Ukrainian  flags and U.S. flags

“There was a whole plethora of different things because we didn’t tell people what to put,” McGrogan said. “Put whatever is important to you.”

Henry Culbertson had a flag and a sign saying hands off Social Security and Medicare. He rode an electric tricycle because his mobility was limited by an accident.

It was his first protest since the women’s march in Washington after President Trump’s inauguration in 2017. As he crossed Player Road on the path a woman in an SUV in the median waiting to turn into True Blue rolled down her window and yelled, “Donald Trump. Donald Trump.”

Culbertson smiled and rolled on.

“They were constantly urged to ignore any negative yells, or if there were counter-protesters to just ignore and walk by,” McGrogan said. “We really stressed that we wanted this to be a peaceful march.”

After two hours, deputies counted just a couple of dozen marchers on the path. McGrogan headed back to her car after thanking the deputies.

What happens next?

“You know, that’s a good question,” McGrogan said. “I know Indivisible has more.”

A local chapter of the group, Indigo Indivisible, started meeting last month, but McGrogan isn’t part of that.

“We’re telling people to keep the pressure on,” said Karen Ebbets, president of the League of Women Voters of Georgetown County.

The group doesn’t support parties or candidates, but it did support Hands Off.

“We’re worried about the constitutionality of it,” Ebbets said of the Trump administrations moves to suspend funding of programs authorized by Congress. “We feel strongly that it’s unconstitutional.”

The league is urging members to contact their lawmakers.

And McGrogan said the march itself was the message.

“I think the main thing that we can get out is that we’re not a bunch of radical liberals,” she said. “I’m an old lady that has Social Security.”