Four Rivers Indivisible co-leader Leslie McColgin brought an inflatable chicken suit to Thursday’s “Do Your Job Jamie! Ice Out For Good/Healthcare In!” protest on the sidewalk in front of Republican Rep. James Comer’s Paducah field office.
“There were no takers this time,” she said, smiling. Nonetheless, the Graves countian was pleased with the turnout – close to 40 people gathered to hold up signs, wave at passing motorists, chant, sing, and enjoy traditional protest songs via the group’s portable PA system.
She said protestors “felt energized by the large number of supporting honks they received.”
Last March, three women and two men donned bright yellow chicken suits — including the one McColgin transported to the protest — and roosted on the sidewalk. The idea was to shame the lawmaker into hosting a town hall.
Comer was elsewhere. But the protest ruffled his feathers. He had staffers hastily knock out a three-sentence statement that concluded, “Congressman Comer does not plan on holding therapy sessions for left-wing activists suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
The protest signs, some machine-printed and others homemade, might have stuck in his craw, too, especially those from the March protest that challenged the congressman, “Do Your Job Jamie! YOUR FLOCK IS WAITING, AND WE ARE IN A FOWL MOOD!” The sign also featured a rooster with Comer’s frowning face.
Other messages included, “ONLY A FASCIST WOULD DENY MY RIGHT TO HOLD THIS SIGN,” “OUR TROOPS ARE NOT TRUMP’S TOYS,” “FUND MEDICAID NOT ICE” and “THIS IS NOT RIGHT OR LEFT BUT RIGHT VS WRONG.”
McColgin explained that the protest was held “in response to recent events in Minnesota, including the shooting of unarmed ICE observer Renee Good, as well as the unconstitutional and lawless behavior of ICE.
But the protest also focused on interrelated issues, according to McColgin: “The massive increase in ICE funding while simultaneously taking away funds from many programs that make life affordable for people, with special emphasis on the devastating cuts to healthcare, the failure of Rep Comer’s oversight committee to rein in ICE and their lawless and often unconstitutional behavior, failure to assert Article 1 powers over the president’s stated intentions to start new wars, and failure of Rep. Comer to hold a town hall so that constituents could seek answers about these issues.”
The group handed Comer’s staffers a document signed by rally goers that called on him to
- hold a town hall;
- vote to reduce the ICE budget to zero dollars “unless their lawless, unconstitutional behavior is reined in;”
- fund healthcare, including subsidies for the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid “so millions won’t go without care, get sick and die in many cases;”
- support “congressional oversight relating to the administration’s announced intentions relating to taking over or intervening in other countries’ internal affairs and violating their sovereignty,” and relating to “the actions of ICE and investigate these reported atrocities and inhumane unconstitutional actions in their mass deportation program.”
The document also called for the Trump administration to return to focusing on the border and ending “this boondoggle grab-and-go Gestapo action. Americans do not want masked secret police on their streets terrorizing people.”
Four Rivers co-leader Karla Johnston of Calloway County said the Thursday protest mainly concentrated “on ICE and their horrific, unconstitutional actions on the ground, their ridiculously high funding, their lack of training, and their lack of oversight.”
She also said Four Rivers returned to the sidewalk fronting Comer’s office “to ask him again to please hold a town hall and speak with his constituents. He seems to think that meeting with the Chamber or giving an interview on Fox News is the same as holding a town hall, and we’re here to tell him that it’s not. We want access to him. We want to hear from him and speak to him in person. And we are asking him to hold a public town hall so that we can. He owes that to his constituents – all of us.”
Johnston said she came to the protest because “I consider myself to be patriotic and that it’s my patriotic duty to publicly protest when warranted, as it is now. I truly believe dissent is patriotic when our government has run amok as it has.”
Photos from the protest
(from upper left) Two of the many signs at the protest; Lauren Taulbert; Jo Dortch; Jerry Sykes, Chuck Paisley, Mary Jenett, and Jimmie Johnson; Mary Jenett; Roxanne Stonebreaker; Ray Smith; Four Rivers co-leader Karla Johnston; Four Rivers co-leader Leslie McColgin
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