Sarah Balmer of Covington Township was pretty sure her adopted daughter would safely return home from a trip on Saturday, but she wasn\u2019t certain.<\/p>\n
Balmer told more than 1,000 people gathered on Courthouse Square for a \u201cNo Kings\u201d protest Saturday that she had adopted her daughter from China in 2009 and, for many years, had no worries about her security.<\/p>\n
But, with the advent of arrests of minorities by ICE agents under the current administration, that sense of ease is gone, she told the crowd.<\/p>\n
She recalled seeing ICE agents as she and her daughter were on their way out of a theater production in November.<\/p>\n
She saw the agents approaching a postal worker and grew concerned.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first I thought they were arresting the mailman,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
So, Balmer warned her daughter Lily Mei to stay in the car while she got out and began recording the agents.<\/p>\n
The agents came from a nearby home and saw her video recording them. They recorded her back and took photos.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure they have identified me as a woke enemy of the state,\u201d she said to the crowd, who responded with laughter.<\/p>\n
She recalls another incident during which ICE agents detained an adopted youngster.<\/p>\n
When asked for a reason, they said, \u201cHer appearance didn\u2019t match her last name.\u201d<\/p>\n
In another incident, ICE agents were detaining a young woman in the Scranton area when one of the agents said, \u201cI think we have the wrong person.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other responded, \u201cThey all look alike.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you imagine that?\u201d Balmer said. \u201cWe live in a nation of immigrants. This is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Determined and hopeful<\/p>\n
David Snyder was attending the rally after a major shift in his mindset and his politics.<\/p>\n
Snyder voted for President Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.<\/p>\n
Snyder grew up as a conservative, but always valued the rule of law and the Constitution.<\/p>\n
So, after Trump, having lost the 2020 election, questioned the results of that election, Snyder could no longer support him, he said.<\/p>\n
Failing to respect the results of an election was the breaking point for Snyder, and he became an Independent.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, he stood with his friend Bob Badick, with whom he graduated from high school in 1984. Badick is a lifelong Democrat and the two had always remained friends, in spite of their political differences.<\/p>\n
Now, the two stood together supporting democracy.<\/p>\n
Both men said they were glad to see the robust turnout for the event, in spite of temperatures hovering just above freezing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about restoring democracy,\u201d Snyder said.<\/p>\n
Tony Acquaviva has never been reluctant to speak his mind.<\/p>\n
The Elmhurst Township man was arrested decades ago in Washington, D.C., protesting the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s rally was yet another opportunity to fight for democracy and humanity, he said.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s passionate in his commitment to resist the \u201ccruelty and inhumanity\u201d of the current administration.<\/p>\n
He believes future elections, if they are conducted fairly, will allow the current administration and legislators who support them to be voted out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s if we\u2019re able to hold a fair election,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s my hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan, who recently denounced agreements allowing local police to perform certain functions of federal immigration officers, took to the podium amidst robust applause.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should ask ourselves what kind of people we are and not what party we are from,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cThe measure of a nation is not its wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The current administration is centered around fear, he said. Fears build bombs, walls, and governments that eventually fail, he said.<\/p>\n
The current administration\u2019s disdain for democracy is loud, but not strong, he said. Love and decency are like a river, which in the long run will quietly prevail and change things around it as it passes through.<\/p>\n
\u201cChoose the path of empathy, courage, truth,\u201d he said. \u201cNot to merely win an election, but to care for others.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sarah Balmer of Covington Township was pretty sure her adopted daughter would safely return home from a trip…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[68934,6487,68932,34,6509,68933,178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-151406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-adopted-daughter","9":"tag-covington-township","10":"tag-david-snyder","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-ice-agents","13":"tag-sarah-balmer","14":"tag-scranton","15":"tag-scranton-headlines","16":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}