Opponents of President Donald Trump’s policies rallied Saturday in downtown Hopkinsville, joining some 3,000 communities in a nationwide protest of issues ranging from immigration enforcement to free speech rights and the war in Iran.
Slightly more than 100 people came out for the Hopkinsville rally along West Ninth Street outside the Christian County Justice Center.
Jeremy Schadewald, of Cadiz, came with his wife and carried a sign with photos of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, the two Americans shot and killed by federal immigration officers during protests in Minnesota.
“These are the two names we know,” said Schadewald. “There are so many more names we don’t know.”
Schadewald is a psychiatric family physician assistant in Clarksville, Tennessee. He served in the U.S. Army for 23 years with deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and countries in West Africa.
As a veteran who took the military oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution, Schadewald said he sees hypocrisy among many who carry a copy of the Constitution in their pocket and then violate basic rights, including free speech and due process.
“All of these are deeply moral issues,” he said.
Saturday’s rally was the fifth anti-Trump demonstration in Hopkinsville since the president began his second term in office. The first one, in April, was called a Hands Off rally. Two others — in June and October — were organized as part of the nationwide No Kings campaign. The fourth protest, organized on short notice in January, was in protest of Renee Good’s shooting death.
Christian County resident Victoria Keith has organized most of the local rallies. She was present Saturday in a yellow safety vest, walking up and down the sidewalk to keep an eye on things and track the number of people attending.
As traffic passed, the protesters waved hand-made signs with messages such as “Welcome to the ‘We Love America’ Rally,” “Dump Trump,” “No War” and “Invoke the 25th Amend.” Many drivers honked and waved their support from open windows. A few blared their horns, apparently in opposition. One man rolled down his pickup truck window and shouted, “Y’all know Trump’s your daddy, right?”
Keith said she appreciates the sense of camaraderie among people who don’t know each other but share beliefs about the country’s future.
“I think it’s important for people to express what they are thinking and feeling,” she said. “We need more of that.”
Keith said she’s encouraged that local people have felt comfortable enough to speak up about their concerns even though they live in a conservative area that twice supported President Trump’s election.
Drew Williams, the Democratic candidate seeking Kentucky’s 1st District congressional seat currently held by Republican James Comer, attended the Hopkinsville rally. He said he was heading to Paducah after leaving Hopkinsville.
According to news reports, some of the largest Kentucky No Kings rallies were in Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green and Paducah, which had more than 1,000 protesters.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
