By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
A light rain began to fall as about 200 people gathered in and around the gazebo on Wooster Green at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night.
Some 500 miles away President Donald Trump was addressing a joint session of Congress.
“That’s why we’re here,” someone shouted.
[From Ohio Capital Journal: Trump boasts ‘America’s momentum is back’ in address to Congress as Dems protest, boycott]
The vigil was called by the local League of Women Voters to stand up for what they see as the abuses committed in the early days of the second Trump Administration.
Sharlyn Katzner, the organizer of the vigil challenged those who dismissed the vigil as partisan. “We the people believe in the checks and balances spelled out in our constitution to ensure a healthy democracy,” she said. “Calling out overt government overreach is not politics.”
She continued: “We the people trust our elected officials to follow that Constitution. asking the to do that is not partisan. We the people believe every person regardless of race, gender, gender identity, their sexual orientation or immigration status should be treated with dignity. Asking for them to be treated so is not partisan.”
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Katzner urged those gathered to continue to hope and not be paralyzed by the constant pronouncements and threats from the White House.
Just before the gathering began, Trump said all federal funding would be withdrawn from college and universities that did not crack down on “illegal protests.”
Katzner called on Diana Patton, the founder of Diana Consultancy and the Rise Advocates, to address the crowd.
Just as Katzner had earlier invoked the memory of Rosa Parks and Susan B. Anthony, Patton invoked another activist, her grandmother Luella Talmadge Jackson of Fostoria.
Luella Jackson came north from Georgia with her family as a child to escape the terrors of the Jim Crow rule. They came to Ohio seeking freedom.
In Fostoria, the lunchroom attendant help found the Bethel Church and the local chapter of the NAACP. “I stand on strong shoulders.”
In fighting for democracy, though, one not fall into hate. Do not become the oppressor, Patton said.
Taking action sometimes just means standing there, and smiling.
Taking action, the organizers said meant voting, encouraging others to vote, reaching out to legislators.
Taking action involves those who are emotionally struggling through the tumultuous times.
Taking action should also involve having the courage to reach out to people you don’t agree with, whom you may not like, and talking to them, and keeping the discussion civil.
