Spirit of 1776

Hannah Abner stood atop a brick flagstaff plinth in front of the Clark County Courthouse on Saturday, hold­ing a sign that showed a teapot and cup spilling their contents.

“We dumped tea for less,” the sign read. The ref­er­ence was to the Boston Tea Party, a pre­cip­i­tat­ing event of the American Revolution in which pro­test­ers dumped tea to protest unjust tax­es and the tyran­ny of a mad king.

Across America, on Saturday, eight mil­lion peo­ple took part in a peace­ful rev­o­lu­tion against President Donald Trump and his poli­cies, includ­ing infla­tion­ary tar­iffs, unde­clared wars, author­i­tar­i­an acts, and appar­ent efforts to dis­en­fran­chise voters.

It was the largest demon­stra­tion in the coun­try in more than half a cen­tu­ry. The Winchester ral­ly was one of 3,300 in 50 states.

“I’m here because it’s one of the things I can do to show that I’m not hap­py with the way things are right now, and that things don’t have to be like this. They can be dif­fer­ent,” Abner said.

What she was most unhap­py about, she said, was the aggres­sive actions of Immigration Control and Enforcement to arrest and deport peo­ple whose only crime is that they are in this coun­try ille­gal­ly. ICE is tear­ing apart fam­i­lies, Abner said.

“These peo­ple are part of our com­mu­ni­ties, and they con­tribute to our com­mu­ni­ties,” she said. “That’s what makes me most angry right now.”

One of the signs at the ral­ly had a pic­ture of the icon­ic blue bun­ny cap of 5‑year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who was sep­a­rat­ed from his father by ICE agents. Other signs ref­er­enced the killing in Minneapolis of pro­test­ers Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents.

John Rice, a Winchester lawyer, and his wife, Brenda, got into the Revolutionary theme by dress­ing in 18^th-cen­tu­ry cos­tume and car­ry­ing a red, white, and blue sign that read “Spirit of 1776.”

“It means that we can show there are some peo­ple in Clark County who don’t sup­port what’s going on in the minds of the crim­i­nal enter­prise mas­querad­ing as an admin­is­tra­tion,” John Rice said. “I have to believe that it will do some good. … We have to do some­thing, and this is about all we can do,” oth­er than vote, he added.

Chelsea Kirk, a Democratic can­di­date for state rep­re­sen­ta­tive, was col­lect­ing sig­na­tures for a peti­tion to send to U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R‑Ky., oppos­ing President Trump’s SAVE America Act. The bill would require more strin­gent doc­u­men­ta­tion to prove cit­i­zen­ship, such as a pass­port or birth cer­tifi­cate, and pho­to iden­ti­fi­ca­tion to reg­is­ter to vote.

Critics say it espe­cial­ly dis­ad­van­tages women, whose last names often don’t match the names on their birth cer­tifi­cates or oth­er documents.

“We def­i­nite­ly sup­port secure elec­tions, but we just don’t believe there’s evi­dence that there’s been vot­er fraud that would jus­ti­fy this type of leg­is­la­tion,” she said.

Cora Heffner and oth­er vol­un­teers were reg­is­ter­ing peo­ple to vote. During her shift, Heffner said she reg­is­tered only one 18-year-old girl who came with her mother.

Rory Houlihan, anoth­er can­di­date for state rep­re­sen­ta­tive, said any­one should be able to vote with a Real ID driver’s license. Houlihan asked the crowd who made Trump king, and answered his own ques­tion: no one.

Some teach­ers who attend­ed the ral­ly didn’t want to give their names for fear of reper­cus­sions. The Trump admin­is­tra­tion has attacked pub­lic schools and uni­ver­si­ties for what it says is indoctrination.

“We want to sup­port our friends and show that there are peo­ple who care deeply about our coun­try, and we want to show peo­ple who are a lit­tle bit afraid right now that they are not alone,” a teacher said.

One woman held a sign that said “Protect the dolls,” a ref­er­ence to trans­gen­der women who have been a focus of recrim­i­na­tion. One pro­test­er said Trump’s Make America Great Again move­ment has “a very lim­it­ed view of what America is,” one that is too white, too straight, and too Christian.

Others leaned into their Christian faith to protest against policies.

Iris Gayheart car­ried a sign she had made depict­ing Jesus wear­ing a crown of thorns, with blood flow­ing down his face and his eyes closed, as if in prayer or sor­row. Above the image was a quo­ta­tion from the book of the prophet Isaiah: “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppres­sive decrees.”

“I feel that if Jesus came back today, he wouldn’t be wel­come,” she said. “Jesus preached love for all.”

The Rt. Rev. Mark Van Koevering, bish­op of the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington, spoke against Christian nation­al­ism, call­ing it “a cor­rup­tion of the gospel and a real threat to the coun­try and the church.”

Pointing out that the next day was the begin­ning of Holy Week, Van Koevering said Christians have “no king but Jesus” and must work for “peace and jus­tice” as they await his kingdom. 

“We are called to bear wit­ness to the rec­on­cil­ing love of God through Jesus, not to cre­ate a theo­crat­ic state,” he said.

Adam Johnson, one of the orga­niz­ers of the Winchester event, said he was pleased with the turnout.

“This has been great,” he said about a half hour into the rally.

During the event, many peo­ple honked their car horns or yelled at the crowd, but their respons­es were most­ly pos­i­tive. Winchester Police Chief Travis Thompson said there were no issues at all dur­ing the rally.

More about the rally

The Kentucky Lantern had statewide cov­er­age of the event.
Humanists of Winchester’s story

Image gallery