by Berry Craig
Editor's Note: This article is reprinted with permission from Forward Kentucky, link to original: West Kentucky Says Hands Off!
Slideshow addition by West Kentucky Journal.
Heavy rains and flash flooding led Four Rivers Indivisible to postpone Paducah’s “Hands Off!’ protest against the Trump administration until Saturday, April 12th.
The April 5th coast-to-coast wave of protests was sponsored by local branches of the national Indivisible organization, which called the gatherings “a nationwide mobilization to stop the most brazen power grab in modern history.”
More than 225 people — including Kentucky State AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Wiggins and several other active and retired union members — showed up for Saturday’s one-week-later rally in the sunwashed parking lot of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 184. Sponsor of the event, Four Rivers Indivisible, provided music, skits, poetry written by veterans, speakers, and a pair of Four Rivers members dressed in bright yellow chicken suits, another jab at Republican First District Congressman James Comer for refusing to hold a town hall. One of the fuzzy fowls had a sign around its neck identifying the big bird as “Rep. James Comer 1st Congressional District.”
(Background: On March 23, a quintet of protestors, including 82-year-old United Auto Workers retiree Jerry Sykes, donned chicken suits and roosted on a sidewalk outside Comer’s Paducah field office. Though the congressman was elsewhere, the protest ruffled his feathers. He had staffers crank 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.”)
Leslie McColgin, Four Rivers co-leader and program emcee, quoted the snarky statement, adding, “Well Rep. Comer, we don’t want therapy, we want our Social Security checks! We want our health departments to keep diseases from spreading!” Laughter and applause followed from the sign-waving crowd.
“It was a perfect day,” she said. “It was a perfect location, and everything came together. It got people connected with each other.”
McColgin added, “People are begging for more. ‘When’s the next one?’ they keep asking.”
She said Indivisible wants to collaborate with unions for nationwide events on May 1, which more than 160 countries celebrate as International Workers’ Day or Labor Day.
The speaker’s lineup included Brian Courtney, Local 184’s business agent. He fired up the rally-goers with a speech that was clearly a crowd-pleaser.
Here it is, in its entirety:
As the introduction stated, my name is Brian Courtney, and I’m proud to serve as the business agent for Local 184, right here in the community I was raised in. But today, I’m not just speaking to you as a union rep. I’m speaking as a son, a neighbor, a father – and a working person who sees what’s happening around us.
Because, let’s be honest, it doesn’t matter what brought you here today. Maybe you’re fighting for your healthcare. Maybe you’re here because you’re worried about your prescription drugs becoming unaffordable. The prescription drugs that so many of us rely on daily, myself included.
Maybe you’re motivated by Social Security or Medicaid because you or someone you love relies on these benefits to survive.
Maybe it’s fair wages, or affordable housing, education, or your right to simply live with dignity.
Maybe you’re here because you’re tired of seeing Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their billionaire buddies destroying livelihoods, gutting public resources, and driving up costs, and all the while, padding their own pockets!
I’m here to be the voice for those who don’t have one. Most especially the one million government employees who were stripped of their rights to collectively bargain and form a union. I can’t think of anything more American than the choice to join or form a union.
When Donald Trump and Elon Musk attack the NLRB, they’re coming for the rights that union members fought, bled, and died for. We have to stand united, because if they tear down the NLRB, they tear down the very foundation of our right to organize, to bargain, and to be heard.
The truth is – we all have a dog in this fight!
This isn’t about left or right. It’s not about Democrat or Republican. They’re not just coming for one side – they’re coming for all of us.
They’re coming for the everyday worker who’s given 30, 40, even 50 years of their life to a career – only to see their benefits cut, their pensions threatened, or their healthcare priced out of reach.
They’re coming for the young folks who are just starting out, and they are coming for the retirees who just want to rest.
They’re coming for the single mom who’s working two jobs, and she still can’t make ends meet.
They’re coming for the folks who can’t afford to get sick – because missing a paycheck means missing a meal!
And here’s the thing: when one man, woman or child is denied healthcare, or when someone’s benefits that they’ve earned are stripped away, when basic dignity is treated like a luxury – we all lose.
Now, all of us, we’re here today because we know the truth: what happens to one of us, happens to all of us.
And we’re not standing for it.
This cannot be business as usual. We are facing an unprecedented, unconstitutional threat to our country and our freedoms.
This is not politics as normal – this is an illegal power grab, carried out in plain sight. We cannot afford silence; now is the time every American who believes in the rule of law, in democracy, in justice, and in truth, to rise up and speak out. We must demand that our lawmakers use every tool at their disposal to hold Donald Trump and Elon Musk accountable. Anything less is complicity. Our voices matter, our voices are powerful – so let them hear us.
So whether you’ve got a union card in your wallet or not, whether you’re working, retired, or still finding your way – you belong here because this rally isn’t just about defending our rights, it’s about defending the basic promise that if you work hard and play by the rules, you ought to be able to live with dignity and raise your family without fear.
That’s not a radical position. That’s an American one.
Folks, we have the power. This fight is just beginning, and we’re mobilizing to jumpstart the opposition. Together, we have the power to stop this takeover.
So to the folks in power: Hands off our healthcare. Hands off our benefits. Hands off our people. Hands off our unions.
This is our town. These are our families. And we’re not going anywhere.
Welcome to the rally. Thank you for having me.
Stand tall, stand together – and let’s get to work.
