Laguna Woods residents were out in force for a “Hands Off’ protest in Laguna Hills on Saturday, April 5, joining hundreds of others at El Toro Road and Paseo de Valencia.
The protest was among the Hands Off demonstrations taking place that day in more than 1,200 locations in all 50 states. Demonstrators nationwide voiced anger over the Trump administration’s steep cuts in federal agencies and the federal workforce and the sweeping tariffs.
In Laguna Hills, protesters packed all four corners of the intersection, with crowds lining the sidewalks in front of Walgreens, Chase Bank, the gas station and Starbucks. They carried signs and waved flags, as passing cars honked almost incessantly, to protest the way President Donald Trump and his unelected adviser, billionaire Elon Musk, are running the country.
Among the signs: “Make lying wrong again.” “Think while it is still legal.” “I’ve seen smarter cabinets at IKEA.” And signs calling for hands off Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, health care and more.
For residents of the Laguna Woods retirement community, many of them on fixed incomes and reliant on federal programs, the greatest concerns were mass firings at the Social Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Medicare offices; the new tariffs and their effect on prices and the plunge of the stock market that followed; and cuts in funding for public health programs.
Ann Joynt and Jan McKenzie carried signs proclaiming “Free Musk” and “Hands off Social Security.”
“We think that this president and his good buddy are ruining our country, killing our democracy and trying to establish a dictatorship,” Joynt said.
“We did need to cut some of the fat,” said McKenzie, “but it is the way they are doing it, without asking the experts at those agencies they’re cutting. It’s really appalling.”
McKenzie added that she felt it was important to join the protest.
“It feels really good to make our thoughts known, instead of being silenced,” she said.
Stuart Hack agreed that change was needed in Washington.
“I’m not opposed to change,” he said. “I’m opposed to doing it without taking the time to do it right. It’s the capriciousness of the government.”
Hack said he’s concerned about what the actions of the administration are doing on “the population least able to afford the negative economics,” such as retirees on fixed incomes whose IRA value has dropped significantly when the stock market reacted.
Trump has long advocated for tariffs as the solution to economic challenges, and his insistence that other countries are ripping off the United States is one of his most consistently expressed beliefs over the years.
“The tariffs give us great power to negotiate,” he said last week, according to The Associated Press. He also described the tariffs as a necessity and said he was undeterred by the cratering stock market, adding that “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
Don Price, who served two years in the Army in the 1960s, was at the protest with his wife, Peggy.
“The leadership does not have values that I can believe in,” she said, citing human needs rather than wealth and greed.
“Everything he (Trump) touches is going to serve himself, and not the American economy,” Don Price added.
Protester John Biehl, who lives in Lake Forest, served in the Army for two years in the 1960s in Turkey. He said he has a “deep, profound dislike for the direction our country is headed – the bigotry, greed and lack of patriotism.”
Biehl said he sees the cutting of thousands of employees at the VA as “just another promise broken – the promise for medical care through the VA, and the lack of respect for the military.”
Laguna Woods resident Kevin Hertell lamented the “lack of good management practices” of the administration.
“The cuts in the agencies don’t make sense, there’s no efficiency, and people are in turmoil,” he said. “Resistance is the key. We have to be part of the collective if we are going to survive this.”
Ann Omae said she rallied the residents to attend the protest on Saturday.
“A lot of people have concerns about what is going on in Washington, D.C.,” she said. “They needed a place to voice their opinions that was accessible and safe to go to.”
As a community, “we’re really vulnerable, we have a real stake in Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid and veterans benefits and the stability in financial markets,” the retired school librarian said. “It’s incredibly worrisome.”
The protest, she said, was a chance to “have our elected officials get a sense of how concerned we are.”
Resident Annie Wright agreed that word of the discontent needs to get out.
“Protests like this one send a clear message – our government is failing us,” she said. “By speaking out, we expose these failures and mobilize others to demand accountability. Change begins when citizens rise up, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
Perhaps the oldest protesters Saturday were Richard Krizman, 100, and his wife, Arlene, 98. The couple lives in the San Sebastian 55+ Apartment Homes in Laguna Woods.
It was the first time they took part in a protest, Richard Krizman said in an email afterward. They lived in Kansas City, he said, and were busy with family and work.
Krizman felt it was important for them to take part in the protest “because Trump is making a mess out of everything,” he said. “He’s making the country prejudiced again. He’s taking away jobs. He’s threatening Social Security and Medicare. We’re old, and we depend on that money to make ends meet.”
For Krizman, attending the protest was worth it: “It was nice to see so many people out there protesting. Our friends and neighbors. Old people. Young people. It made me proud. And everyone was so nice.”
The couple’s son, Rick Krizman, and daughter-in-law, Debra Young Krizman, accompanied them at the protest.
“This whole event has been so great for them,” Young Krizman said. “They’ve been pretty much dancing on air.”