I live close enough to Washington, D.C., to have made it to Saturday’s big protest on the mall, but a friend suggested we try a closer one instead. Which is how I found myself standing in downtown Manassas across from a cemetery and a Harley shop.

It was not an auspicious beginning, but things quickly picked up. By 12:30 there were hundreds of people lining the road, holding flags and signs, chanting “This is what democracy looks like!” Best of all was the support we received from what seemed like every other car that cruised down Route 28. I’ve never heard so many horns honking: from small toots to big blasts.

This demonstration won’t change policy, at least not right away. It felt like very small payback for all the jobs lost, lives upended, research torpedoed; for the tariffs and the firings and the chaos. But it’s a way to air grievances and feel a small sense of usefulness. And then, there were all those horns honking. They made it feel like a parade, a celebration. They made it feel like the start of something big.