HARRISBURG, DAUPHIN COUNTY (WHTM) — All of Pennsylvania is in the ‘green’ but protesters flocked to the capitol on Wednesday to blast Governor Wolf’s various shutdown orders and his mask mandate.
Dennis Owens was there and has the story from Harrisburg.
They came armed with signs, and flags and tee-shirts. And they came armed.
“We don’t want to be a nanny state. We want to be free Americans and walk as free Americans,” said Michael Daino, co-organizer.
Michael Daino helped organize the assembly for freedom rally and though the state is now mostly open they protested Governor Wolf’s shutdown orders.
“We are seeing our freedoms getting eaten away by edicts. Why do we have a constitution if a governor can just say hey I’m gonna shut down that business and it gets shut down,” said Joel Saint, Lancaster County pastor.
The mostly maskless crowd couldn’t hide its disdain for Wolf’s mandate on face coverings.
“Governor Wolf wants all our kids to wear masks in school there’s no way schools can open if kids have to wear masks because teachers cannot be mask police,” said Jamie Walker, mom of three.
“I think we should have free will if we want to wear a mask we wear a mask and if we don’t, I don’t think we should be shamed because of it and there’s a lot of that going on right now,” said Mike Lingg, traveled from Pittsburgh.
And there’s a lot of new science. All of it showing mask wearing reduces the spread of the virus. But to these folks, personal freedom is more important than a free roaming illness.
“Let it run its course a 99% recovery rate,” said Daino.
Organizers called for 20,000 patriots to attend this rally. They didn’t really get that close. There were several hundred, maybe a thousand.
