Anti-mandates rally on WA state Capitol Campus falls short of attendance expectations
Hundreds of people attended an anti-mandates rally on the state Capitol Campus on Saturday, a total that fell well short of expectations.
Earlier in the week, the state Department of Enterprise Services, which manages the property, alerted the community about the potential for increased traffic and attendance in the thousands.
Instead, the crowd averaged about 500 and peaked at around 700, said Sgt. Darren Wright of the Washington State Patrol. He said no problems with the gathering or parking were reported.
If more trucks had showed up, there was a plan to park them along Deschutes Parkway near Capitol Lake. In the end, it wasn’t needed, he said.
The event, which was a billed as the “GRIT (Government Resistance Impedes Tyranny) Freedom Festival” may have been competing against sunny weather, the war in Ukraine, or turnout may have been undercut after Gov. Jay Inslee announced an earlier date of March 12 to lift most mask requirements.
Masks will still be required at places such as hospitals, dental offices, long-term care facilities and correctional facilities in Washington, The Olympian reported.
Among the speakers on Saturday was the usual assortment of conservative voices: initiative king Tim Eyman, Thurston County resident Glen Morgan and Republican state Rep. Jim Walsh of Aberdeen.
Despite the low turnout, several in attendance remained concerned about COVID-19 mandates and often said they were there to protect their “freedoms.”
“The vaccines did me OK when I was a kid, but everyone has the right, the right to choose, in my belief,” said Dan Ricklick of Tumwater.
Nurse Trish Nilsen of Whidbey Island, who said she grew up in Shelton, found a spot on Capitol Way where she held signs and showed them off to passing traffic.
She said she and her husband both lost their state jobs due to COVID-19 mandates, which in the case of state workers required they be vaccinated.
Nilsen worked as a nursing instructor at the University of Washington.
“When health care employees aren’t allowed to have choice over our own bodies that is something I don’t stand for,” she said. “I wasn’t trained as a nurse to not support a patients right to choose, but when nurses are told we can’t make our own choices for our own health, then I think there’s something wrong with that.”
Truck driver Brett Arnold of Kent was one of those who drove his rig to the rally. He said he drove down and first had breakfast at the south Thurston County restaurant Farm Boy — a business that grabbed headlines for refusing to abide by pandemic-related mandates — then made his way to Olympia.
He, too, said he was there to protect his freedoms, citing the higher cost of fuel, mask mandates and gun rights.
“It’s just the right thing to do because the world is going to hell,” he said. “The world just isn’t what it used to be.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2022 at 5:02 PM.
