Hope and Freedom Draw Supporters to People’s Convoy

Trucks and cars line up to leave Hagerstown Speedway in Hagerstown, Md., on Mar. 19, 2022, to loop the Capital Beltway. Terri Wu/The Epoch Times

Hagerstown, Md.—It’s day 16 since the People’s Convoy arrived at Hagerstown Speedway in Hagerstown, Maryland, on March 4. The base was quiet on Saturday morning after trucks and cars left before 10:30 a.m. to circle the Capital Beltway again.

They made rounds on the highway to raise awareness of their demands: to end the national emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and restore freedoms protected by the U.S. Constitution. The emergency declaration was declared in March 2020 under then-President Donald Trump and has since been extended twice by President Joe Biden in February 2021 and March 2022.

A “call to action” board at Hagerstown Speedway tells truckers to call their congressional representatives twice a day to urge them to push for ending the national emergency and remind them that primaries were near in this election year. House representatives will be in their districts during the week of March 21 and will resume voting in Washington the week after.

The Senate earlier this month approved legislation to declare an end to the emergency, but the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives isn’t expected to take up the measures. The White House said on the same day that the bill would be vetoed if the House did approve it.

On March 8, the convoy met with Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Capitol Hill to discuss the group’s concerns over government restrictions encroaching on the personal freedoms of Americans. That was followed by further discussions with several members of the House of Representatives.

Steven McLeod from Texas in Hagerstown, Md., on Mar. 19, 2022. Terri Wu/The Epoch Times

Sitting in a camping chair, Steven McLeod from Texas, a sales representative for a software company servicing the trucking industry, was chatting with his new friend Elise from Delaware. Next to him was a big container with some free beer donated by his company.

McLeod firmly believed that all the mandates would be lifted soon. However, that wouldn’t fully address his concerns. He worries about the government gradually taking away people’s choices under the excuse “it’s good for everybody.”

“The mechanism has been installed now. That’s the problem,” McLeod told The Epoch Times.

“At a certain point, everybody thought it would be crazy that you’re not allowed to go to work. Your kids can’t go to school. That would have been insane five years ago. Now it’s commonplace,” he added.

“So, at what point do you take away those rights and those freedoms for the majority of people?”

McLeod was in Pennsylvania on business travel and came over to the convoy in Hagerstown last week. He had arranged for a food truck, an ice cream truck, and free beer for the truckers. His employer, a software company with logistics products serving the trucking industry, donated the money.

He said he thought the truckers’ fight was long-term and didn’t expect results or changes right away. But, to him, it’s essential to “do the right thing” at this moment to support truckers’ cause of defending freedoms.

McLeod’s 20-year-old daughter, whom he calls his “best friend,” is one of the reasons prompting him to take a stand. She’s attending a college in Texas, on her way to becoming a nurse practitioner. A fiscally-responsible person, she wrote a check of $18,000 to buy a car in the past six months. McLeod said she had been working since she was 14 without him asking her to.

He said his daughter embraced the idea that vaccine mandates were for the good of everybody and didn’t question any potential loss of freedom. “[They’re] impressionable. You beat that into the younger generation,” said McLeod.

“We’re one generation away from all of our freedoms from the Constitution just being garbage,” he added. “The consequences of their [his daughter’s generation] decisions will be something we all have to deal with. And they don’t understand it well enough.”

‘It’s Given Us Hope’

Meredith Mathews, an assistant teacher from Edison, New Jersey, arrived late morning with her donations. She left home at 7 a.m. and drove for four hours.

“It really has given us hope: the people that have nothing and are losing everything,” Mathews told The Epoch Times, referring to the truckers’ movement. “It’s given us hope because, without it, it’s just going to be miserable, absolutely miserable.”

She said if teachers in New Jersey did not get vaccinated by June, they might lose their jobs. According to her, the lack of freedoms during the pandemic has hit the students and communities harder than the government and media acknowledge.

Matthews works three jobs and has been checking on the truckers in a group chat she joined after their rallies in New Jersey. “I work 80 to 85 hours a week. I literally go home, sleep, wake up, work. That’s all I do.”

The snow on March 12 prompted her to act. She started asking about truckers’ needs in the group chat and typed up a list during breaks at work. She spent $600 of her own money to purchase the charcoal grills, beef patties, and sleeping bags she donated. Matthews also took with her items in her house: some crafts and a projector screen for movie nights for children.

The charcoal grills and beef patties triggered some excitement. A father of a family of seven stopped by and said this meant he didn’t need to use his current stove anymore, which could fit two burgers only.

Rose Koepsell, volunteer manager of the trucker’s donation center, with charcoal grills donated by Meredith Mathews in Hagerstown, Md., on Mar. 19, 2022. Terri Wu/The Epoch Times

‘We Need Our Freedom Back’

Todd Grenier from Raleigh, North Carolina, arrived with his wife and teenage son on Friday night. He planned to stay for the weekend to “support our freedom to make sure that people will hear America’s voice that we need the country to go back in the right direction.”

“I think it’s going in the wrong direction right now. It seems like a big heavy fist in D.C., mandating everything. Do this. Do that. We need our freedom back,” Grenier told The Epoch Times.

Todd Grenier from Raleigh, N.C., joins the People’s Convoy in Hagerstown, Md., on Mar. 19, 2022. Terri Wu/The Epoch Times

Aleina Boddington, a mother of two from Grafton, West Virginia, has stayed with the convoy for about two weeks with her family. She homeschools her daughter, 7, and her son, 5. She told The Epoch Times that ending the emergency act was important for her because “we shouldn’t have to be forced to do what other people tell us to do. It’s what America is about: freedom.”

‘America Supporting Americans for the Right Reason’

Rose Koepsell, a volunteer manager for the truckers donation center, said she was very impressed by people’s kindness. For example, on the day it snowed, residents in the neighborhood hosted her volunteers who were strangers, so everyone on her team had a warm bed for the night. Some truckers also pooled money to put some people in a hotel.

“It’s America once again, supporting Americans for the right reason. It’s America standing up and saying, ‘we love America,’” she told The Epoch Times. “And whether it’s a disaster like 9/11, or a disaster like we have with our government overreach right now, Americans want to help. They’re standing up, and they’re saying, ‘we support you.’”

Rose Koepsell (L), volunteer manager of the trucker’s donation center, and Meredith Mathews, a teacher from Edison, N.J., in Hagerstown, Md., on Mar. 19, 2022. Terri Wu/The Epoch Times

Two decades ago after 9/11, she worked on disaster relief in New York City for a few months upon arriving on Sept. 14.

Before joining the People’s Convoy in Ohio and following them to Hagerstown, she helped with the tornado disaster relief in Kentucky over Christmas.

“The American people are really showing up by sending their donations. They’re treating this like a disaster. I’ve worked enough disasters to know that they’re. That’s what they’re doing,” she added. “They want to help. They don’t know how, but they’re sending what they can.”