By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Retired Bowling Green City Council member Bob McOmber was not among the typical protesters who gathered in downtown BG Monday during the “Workers Over Billionaires” rally. He was neither an old hippie nor a young liberal. He had served two terms as a Republican in council’s Third Ward seat.
“Not anymore,” McOmber said of his political affiliation. “I just can’t be in the same party as Donald Trump.”
While the list of complaints shared by protesters was long, McOmber narrowed his primary objections to two of Trump’s most offensive policies.
“He wants to deport as many people as he can with brown skin,” he said. “And he is making rich people even richer while taking from the middle and lower classes.”
The Labor Day protest was hosted by the Wood County Democratic Party and local grassroots group, Bowling Green Persists.
Peggy Boren, of Bowling Green, said rather than sitting at home feeling hopeless about the direction of the Trump administration, she got some posterboard and markers.
“This is just a scary time for me. What can one person do,” Boren said. “But here I am.”
Standing along South Main Street, Boren held her sign saying, “Save Medicare. Fire Republicans.”
Alongside her was her daughter, Molly Boren, who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She carried a sign stating, “No Dictators.”
“We have to make it clear to our representatives and fellow citizens that we disagree with what’s going on – and we will vote people out of office,” Molly Boren said.
Signs held by others, expressed their worries:
- “People over profit.”
- “Give to the needy, not the greedy.”
- “I’m a veteran. Not a sucker or a loser.”
- “Ban guns, not books.”
- “Make lying wrong again.”
Standing at the four corners of Main and Wooster streets, Jean Lahey, of Perrysburg, held her “Save Democracy” sign over her head as cars passed by.
“The bottom line is, if we don’t save our democracy, we’ve got nothing,” Lahey said.
Nearby, William Cohara, of McClure, held a sign stating, “Honk if Trumpflation makes you feel poor when you go to the grocery store.”
Cohara had a long list of grievances with the Trump administration.
“I don’t approve of what’s going on with tariffs, education, and tax breaks for the wealthy,” he said. “I don’t agree with imprisonment without due process.”
Cohara, who works in a factory in the Lima area, said the company has had to shut down production lines since workers here legally from other countries are too frightened to come to work.
“They are just disappearing before they are disappeared” by the administration, he said. Meanwhile, the internationally owned company is losing business, he added.
Cohara also worries about the future of his daughter, who is in school to become a special education teacher. The cuts to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs have put that career goal in question. He is also concerned about hardships at local food pantries – some that have had to close at times due to lack of food.
“Society is supposed to support the most vulnerable,” but this administration does not share that philosophy, Cohara said.
A little further down Main Street, Steve Heckler, of Haskins, held a sign asking, “Who Would Jesus Deport?”
“This is for my dear Christian Nationalist friends,” he said.
The other side of his sign said, “Due Process for All.”
“The Supreme Court has given them the same rights as the rest of us,” Heckler said. But the Trump administration is abusing those rights, “instead of giving them a reasonable path to citizenship.”
Top on his list of concerns was Trump “pardoning the terrorists who raided our Capitol.”
And as a former union rep, Heckler does not like how workers are being treated by the administration.
“I see workers being abused all over the place,” he said.
And finally, Heckler voiced worry over efforts to remove historical information from schools, museums and parks that doesn’t paint the U.S. as perfect.
“If you erase that, you can’t learn from that,” he said. “You don’t need to be proud of it.”
Also at the rally was a group called “BG Raging Grannies.” They wore hats adorned with flowers or embroidered head scarves, and carried a quilt-like sign.
The newly-formed gaggle of grannies included Buffi Elwazani, Kendel Kissinger and Laura Burdine-Schutze. They protested the Trump administration’s attacks on democracy, health care, public television, and its illegal stance on immigration. As they marched, they sang a version of “When the Saints Go Marching In,” with lyrics asking where Congressman Bob Latta has been.
“We’re raging against Congress, Trump,” Burdine-Schultz said.
“And the Republican regime,” Kissinger said.
