Approximately 600 people participated in a “mock” town hall meeting at the Arterburn (the St. Matthews Community Center) on Sunday, March 16. The Louisville Chapter of Indivisible invited Kentucky Senators Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell to the meeting, but received no responses. In their absence, citizens addressed their questions to two empty chairs and pictures of the Senators posted on separate tables at the front of the room for about 25 minutes.
More than 20 people posed questions to the Senators. The questions covered a wide variety of topics asking what the Senators were doing to oppose the Trump administration’s current course of action. Examples of the questions included the following:
- A woman who identified herself as Judy asked, “Senator Paul and Senator McConnell, does addressing the common good have any place in your plans? If so, how?”
- Kathy Robbins said, “I would like to ask the Senators why they allow Trump to break so many laws and attack judges who are doing their jobs following the law?”
- Karen expressed her dismay that the Pentagon had stories about black and Hispanic veterans removed from its website, and concluded: “My question to the Senators, and to all Republicans: Have you no shame?”
The second half of the meeting was devoted to an address by Marc Murphy, a faculty member at the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville, and a noted political cartoonist for the Courier Journal. In his prepared remarks, Professor Murphy said that the “greatest illusion of modern society is that freedom is entirely an individualistic matter – when in reality, freedom is interconnected with the well-being of everyone.” He characterized the current situation in stark terms. He declared, the MAGA movement is “not winning; they’ve won.” He declared that the country we knew is no more. “The question is whether we have the willingness, courage and leadership to fight back.”
Professor Murphy chided the Democratic Party as being too willing to compromise on too many issues and playing not to lose. He challenged party leaders to get back to promoting lofty ideas that motivate people for the common good. He said that it is “easy to rally around hate; it is easy to brand. Hope is not easy to brand.”
He invoked the examples of JFK and RFK who boldly articulated ideas that moved people. He challenged political leaders to embrace, not run from, large projects like Universal Health Care, elimination of poverty, and free public education. Most of all, he asserted, there must be no compromise on human rights.
At the conclusion of the meeting, attendees were invited to sign up for an action circle in a policy area such as education, veterans’ affairs, climate, and the environment. Each action circle will meet independently to develop action plans for the chapter in their chosen area that can be shared with the larger group as action items.
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