A crowd of nearly 500 people gathered in Diamond Park in Meadville on Saturday to attend the second No Kings Rally of the year. The first rally, held on June 14, was described by The Meadville Tribune as a protest against President Donald Trump and what attendees viewed as his authoritarian actions.

The rally had a wide range of participants, ranging from Allegheny College students and faculty, the American Civil Liberties Union, members of local government, local political party officers and community members.

“D.E.I., this is what it looks like,” NAACP Political and Community Action Chair Arnold E. Johnson IV told the crowd at the conclusion of the rally.

The event was organized by the Meadville chapter of the NAACP and French Creek Indivisible, a local chapter of the national progressive movement Indivisible which aims to fight for democracy and oppose the Trump administration, according to The Erie Reader.

Signs were plentiful at the event, ranging from “I am Aunt Tifa” to “ICE is a terrorist organization” to “Bark 4 Voting Rights” that was displayed on an attendee’s dog.

Not all members of the community who attended were in support of the rally.

During the event, Crawford County Republican Party volunteer John Quinn carried a large Trump-Vance sign past the Dexter A. Bulen Gazebo where the speakers were stationed. He was greeted with boos by the crowd.

A line of people marched with signs in support of the rally around the perimeter of the park drawing mixed reactions from those passing by in their vehicles. Nearly a dozen cars honked in support, while some honked in protest and did burn outs. Some gave the finger as well.

“We must learn to live together as brothers and/or perish together as fools,” Johnson said, echoing the words of Martin Luther King Jr. “Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Come on. Let’s get radical for the right thing.”

Johnson, who operated as the emcee of the event, introduced Dan Walk, secretary of the Crawford County Democrats and a teacher at Erie’s Public Schools, who gave a talk on public education.

“One of the reasons I do love being an educator is because of my union,” Walk said. “My love for unionism is about organizing and working together. Much of what we do with our union, it’s not just beneficial to educators, it’s also helping the students, the families and just the community in general. Simply put, for the betterment of our nation we need more unions.”

Much of Walk’s speech focused on a new federal school voucher–style program that will take effect in 2027.

This program will operate as a “tax-credit program where individuals can receive up to $1,700 in credits for donating to nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations. These groups can then distribute scholarships for private school tuition, tutoring, transportation or even special education services. Families earning up to 300% of their area’s median income are eligible, and states must opt in, giving governors control over implementation,” according to The Harvard Edcast.

“I believe there’s one big issue that maybe isn’t talked enough about when it comes to vouchers: Federal school vouchers as they are will slowly destroy our nation’s public school system,” Walk said. “They’re eventually going to lead us to the ultimate goal of the proponents and what they want vouchers to be — the privatization of our nation’s education system.”

Walk then described the potential pitfalls of a private education system.

“If the nation’s education model is private, the number one concern will be profit rather than educating our youth,” Walk said. “Education will go from a public good, as it has been intended for centuries, to a business model.”

He finished his speech by describing the issues he sees in his day-to-day life as a teacher.

“Life is hard. I see it in the students’ faces,” Walk said. “This administration is making life harder for the poor and middle classes, and all the while, billionaires are just trying to benefit off our struggles.”

The next speaker was Lindsey Scott, the chair of Crawford County Democrats, who spoke about political violence and veterans’ issues.

“On Sept. 10, I put my words online, very explicitly saying violence against politicians is bad,” Scott said, referring to the day Charlie Kirk was killed. “Then I received approximately 500 hate and death threats on five different social media platforms. And in the last two months total my property was broken into twice. My car and my garage.”

Scott acknowledged that the break-ins could have been unrelated and then moved into issues affecting veterans.

“Our military is good at one thing, and that’s killing,” Scott said. “During the global War on Terror, the conservative number of civilian violent deaths is 400,000.”

Scott, who is a veteran, spoke of the lucrative offers that the military makes to youth in order to recruit them.

“We can’t blame those young people for wanting to do what media tells them is right and getting a paycheck for it,” Scott said. “But the thing is, they’re going to enact and perpetrate violence in communities at their home, where they live in this country. And by the age of 40, I promise you, some of them will be staring down the bottle or staring down the barrel of their own gun.”

Rev Starkie Kreuder, a high school student from Erie, was one of the attendees marching in the line around the park and spoke about why they came to the event.

“I’m queer, so it’s infringing on my personal rights,” Kreuder said of the Trump administration. “Of course, everyone is being affected, but especially for me, it’s really personal.”

Bannie Webster, another high school student from Erie, marched with Kreuder.

“I’m queer too,” Webster said. “But I also came out here because I don’t want to be the guy that sits on their ass while everyone else is suffering.”

Glenn Tuttle, chair of the Libertarian Party of Crawford County, was at the rally, walking around with a large “Don’t tread on me” sign.

“This is a Democratic Party rally, but we can agree on this,” Tuttle said. “I don’t like authoritarianism from either side. Their protest is just as valid as when the right does it.”

Tariffs were the main reason that Tuttle went to the rally.

“He’s assassinating American trade,” Tuttle said of President Trump. “He’s as bad as any liberal. He’s just Bernie Sanders of the right.”