Several hundred people gathered Wednesday morning in the Mojave Desert to send off a group of truckers driving cross-country to protest COVID-19 mandates.
Several hundred people gathered Wednesday morning in the Mojave Desert to send off a group of truckers driving cross-country to protest COVID-19 mandates. Supporters posed for selfies and gifted homemade cookies and other items to dozens of truck drivers who intend to travel to Washington, D.C. The convoy is similar to ones whose defiant blockades have shut down border crossings to the north as truckers rallied in Canada over the nation’s response to the pandemic. Organizers with the group calling itself the People’s Convoy hoped to have 1,000 semi-truck drivers depart from Adelanto Stadium. Fewer than 40 big rigs rolled out, although they were joined by hundreds of other vehicles. Campers, pickups and SUVs with handwritten messages of support joined the procession of vehicles trailing the trucks onto the highway. Several versions of “God Bless the U.S.A.” blared from car stereos. National organizer Maureen Steele,57, said the convoy will head to Washington, D.C., and is expected to arrive after the State of the Union address Tuesday. But she said the group will not stop at the nation’s Capitol. “Because we don’t want another Jan.6,” Steele said, referring to the 2021 insurrection, when a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol. “This convoy starts in Barstow and ends in freedom.” Originally, the rally was meant to start in Barstow but later was changed to Adelanto. As the Omicron surge of the coronavirus has receded across the U.S. and more states begin to lift mask mandates, similar caravans and blockades have started to pop up across the globe. In the U.S., the loosely organized effort has gained momentum, although talk of a Super Bowl rally never came to fruition. And how many truckers will ultimately participate remains unclear. Steele said there are different convoys making their way east.
