In small-town Kentucky, finding ‘all the more reason to resist’

Republished from Kentucky Lantern

At first I wasn’t sure we ought to go. It was easy to imagine several ways this thing could go off the rails. But pretty soon we got clear. If there was going to be an anti-Trump rally in Manchester, we were going to be there.

We’d watched the massive protests in cities and towns around the country, none of them close to our home in Clay County. This was our chance to participate. Edmund threw two folding lawn chairs in the trunk of the car. I brought the signs.

In a downtown parking lot, we found a small group of young people unpacking boxes of snacks and bottled water. We set up in a small grassy area right in the middle of town. Gradually, one at a time, others joined us, adults of varying ages, men and women, some from around here, others from nearby towns. I counted about two dozen on our side.  

Meanwhile another group about the same size was gathering across the street. Much of the event turned out to be these two groups yelling at one another from across the road.  

From our side we chanted:

No hate, no fear

Everyone is welcome here

Hey Hey Ho Ho

Donald Trump has got to go

We sang “This Land is Your Land ” and “Which Side Are You On?”

We held up signs: 

Medicaid Cuts = Closed Hospitals 

Hillbillies Need Health Care, Too

Trump Gives to the Rich, Takes from the Poor

We had chants, songs and signs. They had flags and trucks.  They were gathered around a bright red pickup, parked as if aimed in our direction. There were other trucks, too, not parked, but in constant motion, driving past us up and down Main Street, Trump flags flying, going one way then turning around and coming back the other. It took us a few minutes to figure out that there weren’t as many trucks as there seemed to be, that we were seeing the same ones again and again. And again. 

The trucks, already loud, revved up even louder as they passed us. Some of the people in the trucks got loud, too. Some yelled, GO HOME! To which some of us replied, “We ARE home.” Other truckers shouted something else, which sounded like “other truckers,” but which started with M as in mother and F as in father. I have heard this expression many times in my life, but never so much as last Friday night. It was appropriate, I guess, since earlier in the week the president himself had dropped the F-bomb in a public statement about dropping bombs in Iran. One woman in our group, when they yelled obscenities at us, answered, “We love you.”

Two drivers with diesel engines released clouds of black smoke on our group as they passed. They were promptly pursued and arrested by the police, along with a gentleman in Proud Boy gear who started across the street towards our group and was escorted away by a policeman.

The Manchester police did an amazing, effective and important job. They made it possible for all of us on both sides of the street to exercise our right to protest, and they kept us safe.

There’s another KY Resist protest rally July 5 in London. I plan on being there. It’s a risky business, because Donald Trump has purposefully turned up the dial on anger, hate, fear, and the possibility of violence.   

Which  is — Hey Hey Ho Ho — all the more reason to resist.

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: [email protected]. Follow Kentucky Lantern on Facebook and Twitter. Kentucky Lantern stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

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https://kentuckylantern.com/2025/07/02/in-small-town-kentucky-finding-all-the-more-reason-to-resist/