by Freeda Cathcart
Clifton Forge – On Tuesday, January 20, 2026, sixteen brave and hardy patriots gathered at the Booker T. Washington Park for a Women’s March Free America protest. It was brutally cold with the real feel in the single or negative digits.
Matt Amick decided to organize the first protest to the current federal administration in a town that voted 85% for Republicans. He said, “My intention was to bring together people in the community and provide them a safe space to voice their concerns and needs.”
The people who gathered talked about concerns about having access to affordable healthcare and food security. When one protester was asked why she came to the protest, she replied:
“I have always valued the Constitution of the United States as the most important moral and legal document that I can follow in my life. And seeing it violated in so many ways by the current administration has created an emotion in me that I find hard to name. All I can call it is patriotism.”
The full interview is at this link: https://tinyurl.com/Jan20FreeAmerica. None of the protesters were paid and most of them didn’t consider themselves to be members of the Democratic Party.
After people had the opportunity to meet each other and share concerns, Amick led the group on a meditative walk on a trail in the park. While they walked they sang “This Little Light Of Mine.”
When they passed a small frozen waterfall, several people talked about how that was the only ice they wanted to see in their town. They were disturbed by the images coming out of Minnesota of ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection). They were concerned that people’s constitutional rights were being violated.
Their patriotic spirits shone through as they discussed how they could help protect all their neighbors especially POC (people of color). While all of them were white, they mentioned that they had family and friends that were POC. They were concerned that they were in danger of being disappeared like what was happening in Minnesota and other places.
After the protest, Amick commented on how the recent killing of Alex Pretti affected their new group. He personally felt it was a horrible senseless act of violence against an American citizen. He said they were at a place of “uncertainty.” Some members wanted to actually go to Minnesota as a show of solidarity. Others felt that they needed to stay in Clifton Forge and organize to protect their neighbors like the people in Minnesota did.
Since Governor Spanberger’s inauguration there has been an increase of ICE sightings in Virginia. There is a proposed detention center (concentration camp) Board of Supervisors’ hearing in Hanover County on Wednesday January 28. Local boards of supervisors have rejected plans to have “detention centers” in many states including Kansas City as well as Indiana’s Woodbury even though the Indiana governor said the state welcomed them.
Concentration camps are defined as prisons where people are being held that have been denied due process. This is what has been happening when people are being abducted without a judicial warrant and being held without access to lawyers or a hearing. This is in direct violation of the U.S. constitution.
After the killing of Alex Pretti, the Congressional Democratic Caucuses are determined to change the administration’s ICE and CBP departments to the extent of denying funding that may result in a government shutdown. On Monday January 26, the Republican candidate for Minnesota governor’s race, Chris Madel withdrew his candidacy as well as his membership in the Republican party.
Madel said in a video posted to X: “I cannot support the national Republicans’ stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor count myself a member of a party that would do so.”
