SIDNEY –A small group of protesters gathered in downtown Sidney from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon to voice concerns about recent decisions made at the national level, organizers said.

The demonstration, which included roughly 15 to 20 participants, was held locally so residents would not need to travel to larger cities to participate in similar events, according to organizer Lois Klingsporn. 

“The group was started because some of us can’t go to Scottsbluff, or some place that’s so far away. We wanted to have some demonstrations here against the current regime,” Klingsporn said. 

She said the gathering coincided with national demonstrations connected to the Women’s March.

“This one was in conjunction with the Women’s March because it’s today. But, we have so many grievances that everybody just kind of took their pick about what’s really important to them. We had between 16 and 20, which was pretty good. They were all Sidney people, or Cheyenne County,” she said. 

Klingsporn said participants expressed a range of concerns, including issues related to government policy and representation. She described the group as nonpartisan and said the goal was to raise awareness and allow local residents to publicly express their views.

“We’re non-partisan, and we’re just trying to have local demonstrations because we don’t have much visibility in this town, and we want to know that there are people who are protesting what’s going on in our government,” she said. 

While some residents attended the demonstration to express opposition to current federal policies, others in the community shared differing perspectives on issues being discussed nationally, including immigration.

Sidney resident Seila Stieb said her views on immigration are shaped by her experience as a refugee. Stieb said she and her family fled the former Yugoslavia during the civil war in the early 1990s before eventually immigrating to the United States.  

Cheyenne County's Seila Stieb talks about being a refugee.
Cheyenne County's Seila Stieb talks about being a refugee. Forrest Hershberger/News Channel Nebraska

“If you know anything about the Yugoslavian war, it was a civil war," she said. "It was against Serbs, Croats and Bosnians. It was like a religious war, so to speak, so Muslims, Christians and Catholics. My mother is a Christian and my father is a Bosnian, so she’s Serbian and he’s Bosnian, and so my brother and I, because we’re considered mixed children, we were not really safe anywhere."

Stieb described the challenges her family faced during the conflict and the process of resettling in a new country. She said men could not flee the country. If they were able to fight, they were expected to defend the country.

Stieb says her experience has influenced how she views refugee status and immigration enforcement today.

Stieb emphasized that she believes refugee protections should prioritize women and children displaced by war. She said the United States, while imperfect, offered her family safety and opportunity.

“I come from a communist country. I come from a collapsed country that was once an absolutely phenomenal place to live,” she said. 

She said it collapsed because of communism and corruption.