Episode Description
About 150 protestors stood up for democracy in front of the Justice Center in Hopkinsville, Kentucky as part of the third nationwide ‘No Kings’ protest on March 28.
One Hopkinsville protestor brought along recorded music appropriate for the day, blaring out the lyrics, "Get up, stand up for your rights," by the Jamaican reggae band Bob Marley & the Wailers.
The March 28 protests drew an estimated eight million people to more than 3,000 locations in cities and towns across America.
Demonstrators oppose an increasing list of actions by the Trump administration. Issues include the war with Iran launched by President Donald Trump without Congressional approval, ICE raids that have targeted immigrants often without due process, the killing of American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti at demonstrations in Minneapolis and the erosion of the balance of power among the branches of government.
I’m Rhonda Miller. I talked with demonstrators in Hopkinsville, a town of 30,000 in southwestern Kentucky about 12 miles north of the Tennessee border. Hopkinsville is the center of an agricultural and industrial region near the sprawling Fort Campbell Army base.
The protestors included U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps veterans, mental health professionals, retail workers and many retired people who said they're concerned about the increasing threats to democracy previously unimaginable in America.
Hopkinsville protestors ranged in age from their 20s to their 70s, some who said they first began protesting during the Vietnam war.
This is what democracy sounds like when Americans stand up to save their country. I’m Rhonda Miller in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.