Greene County Democrat

Tag: Social Security

  • No Kings Rally held in Selma

    Part of the No Kings Rally in Selma

    Special to the Democrat by John Zippert, Co-Publisher

    On Saturday, June 14, a multi-racial group of over one hundred people gathered on the west side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma for a ‘No Kings’ Rally to protest the actions of the Trump Administration that harm low- and moderate-income people and help the richest people in our nation. The rally was sponsored by the Save Ourselves Movement for Justice and Democracy (SOS), Alabama New South Coalition (ANSC), and Indivisible.
    The Selma Rally was one of 13 events held in Alabama and among 2,100 held nationwide which involved 5 million people protesting Trump. This was the largest protest of an American President in history. It was held on the same day as Trump’s birthday parade in Washington D. C.
    The focus of the rallies was opposition to Trump’s immigration and deportation policies; the budget cuts in his reconciliation bill on Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP (Food Stamp and Nutrition Programs), Education, Social Security, and other programs; as well as his attacks on Democracy, Voting Rights and the Rule of Law. Another criticism is Trump’s effort to cut the social safety for vulnerable people to give massive tax cuts to the top one percent of people, multi-millionaires and billionaires in our country.
    Former State Senator Hank Sanders of Selma was the moderator of the No Kings Rally and said that the Selma site was chosen by the sponsors of the rally because of its historical significance to the enactment of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the continuance of Democracy in the United States. ”We have no room for a dictator or a self-proclaimed king in America,” he said.
    Isabella Compas of the Alabama Council for Immigrant Justice (ACIJ), who said she was a child of immigrants, spoke against the actions of the Trump Administration and ICE for rounding up undocumented people from farms, working places, churches, and schools who have committed no crimes. She said that families were separated, and people were sent to detention centers in deplorable conditions. Many have been deported without due process or the chance to get legal assistance. Trump is hurting the economy by taking workers out of the fields, processing plants, hotels and construction sites where they are working to support their families without providing replacement workers.
    Martha Morgan, a retired University of Alabama law professor reported on the many legal challenges to the Trump Administration’s illegal and un-constitional actions. She reported that there are trackers on the Internet monitoring all of the legal actions against Trump. There have been 220 lawsuits so far, 73 have been successful at the initial level. Many are under appeal to appellate courts, and most may eventually reach the Supreme Court, which although aligned 6-3 with conservative members has decided some cases against Trump.
    Another speaker was Annie Pearl Avery, a veteran SNCC civil rights worker, who march across the bridge on Bloody Sunday in 1965. She said, “We cannot give up fighting or Trump will set us back to before the Civil Rights Movement.”
    Faya Rose Toure spoke at the rally holding some Confederate flags that the Daughters of the Confederacy had placed at public places. Faya Rose said she goes around pulling up the flags. “The Confederate flag is a symbol of defiance against the government. Trump would li8ke to take us back to slavery and Jim Crow. We are here today because we cannot allow him to take us back.”
    John Zippert with SOS and the Greene County Health System Board of Directors spoke on the implications of the Trump Medicaid and Medicare budget cuts which will eliminate health care coverage for 15 million people and lead to the closure of many more rural hospitals.
    Azali Fortier, a sophomore at Spellman College and native of Selma, spoke of the concerns of young people facing budget cuts in education for Pell Grants, scholarship, research grants and the banning of books about Black studies. “ We are also worried about the budget cuts on the safety net programs and the attacks on democracy,” she said.
    Charles Flaherty of Marion, Alabama, said this was his first protest rally in fifty years, about the same basic democratic rights, but it will not be my last.
    Near the end of the rally, Hank Sanders asked people at the rally to say where they were from and why they came. For half of the people, including some young people, said this was the first public political rally they had ever participated in. There were several Federal workers who were dismissed and others who were fearful of losing their jobs, under Trump’s directives. Several veterans in the group expressed that they were having problems with securing health care and other benefits from the Veterans Administration
    At the end of the rally, the sponsors urged the attendees to call and write their Senators and Congresspersons about their concerns about budget cuts and attacks on democracy. People were urged to write letters to the editor of their local newspapers. The people were also urged to talk to their neighbors and friends about attending the next rally against Trump to make it even larger and more impactful.
    The next rally in this series is scheduled for July 17, 2025, the “Good Trouble Lives On” to commemorate the work of the late congressman and Civil Rights leader, John Lewis, on the date of his death. The Transformational Justice Coalition will be the national sponsor. More information will be available on their website and the NoKIngs.org website as well.

  • People in Greene County protest the actions of Trump-Vance-Musk in their first 75 days in office

    On Saturday, April 5, 2025, 30 people from Greene County held a picket line and rally at the Eutaw, Alabama Post Office , from 10:00 AM to Noon to as part of the national “Hands Off” protest against the actions of the Trump-Vance- Musk regime in their first 75 days in office.
    The people of Eutaw and Greene County were protesting and resisting the actions of Trump-Vance-Musk in firing Federal workers, destroying Federal agencies, e.g., USAID, CFPB, Department of Education; proposing budget cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Food Stamps and other programs that help poor people, while giving tax cuts to the wealthy; and re-writing the history and contributions of Black people to our nation in the name of ending civil rights, voting rights and “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI).
    Carrying signs that said, Trump Hands Off Social Security, Trump Hands Off Medicare, Trump Hands Off Medicaid, Trump Hands Off Food Stamps and Food Banks, Trump-Vance-Musk Hand Off our Museums and National Parks, Trump-Vance-Musk No Tax Cuts for the Rich on the Backs of the Working People and the Poor, the protestors walked on the sidewalk at the front of the U. S. Post Office, the only Federal Building in Eutaw.
    Garria Spencer, Chair of the Greene County Commission, said “The people of Greene County need to wake up and protest and resist the illegal and immoral acts of the Trump, Vance and Musk regime. If we don’t stand up and speak up now the leaders in Washington will cut our benefits and programs to give tax cuts to the rich and well connected.”
    Mayor Latasha Johnson of the City of Eutaw, said “ I am glad to be here protesting against Trump who is taking away all our rights and programs. Small rural places like Eutaw will be hurt if all these cutbacks go through. We all need to stand up now or we will be sorry later.”
    Spiver Gordon of the Alabama Civil Rights Museum, said “Trump, Vance and Musk are trying to erase Black history and the contributions of Black people during and after slavery to our nation. That doesn’t seem like making things great – it seems like going backwards.”
    Carol P. Zippert, Democrat Co-Publisher said, “ I am especially disturbed by the impact of these authoritarian steps taken by Trump, Vance and Musk to hurt our children by dismantling the Department of Education, cutting back on school lunches, banning books in libraries, cutting healthcare for children and mothers. If you were not able to join us this time, I am sure we will be voicing our resistance again soon, so I hope you will come next time to show the opposition to trump is growing.”
    John Zippert, Democrat Co-Publisher, said “We joined millions of people across America and the World, in big and small places, in bearing witness to the illegal and unjust actions of Trump-Vance-Musk in trying to end our national progress toward fairness , social change and democracy for all people.

  • Picket Line and Rally against Trump Administration to be held Saturday, April 5th at Eutaw Post Office, 10:00 AM to Noon

    You are invited to a Picket Line and Rally, this Saturday, April 5, 2025, at the Eutaw Post Office, 227 Prairie Avenue. This is a protest against the polices and actions of the Trump Administration, during its first 75 days in office.
    This public witness of dissatisfaction with Trump-Vance-Musk, at a Federal building in Eutaw, Alabama, is open to anyone who is angry, frustrated and feels betrayed by our national government.
    This Greene County demonstration is part of a larger national and international “Hands Off Our Democracy” protest going on in hundreds of places across America and the world this Saturday, April 5, 2025.
    This is a grassroots response to the power-grab by millionaires and billionaires, like Trump, Vance, Musk and their MAGA supporters, of our Constitutional rights, benefit programs and ultimately of our democracy.
    In recent weeks, the Trump-Vance-Musk regime has unfairly fired thousands of needed Federal workers; unlawfully closed whole agencies and departments, USAID, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Department of Education and others; suspended and questioned contracts with CBO’s because they are implementing policies of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

    Trump and his associates are also trying to cut Federal programs – Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, National Parks, Smithsonian Museums, SNAP (food stamps), WIC, Food Banks, school lunches and post offices serving working and poor people. Many of these actions have been taken to provide funding for tax cuts to the top 1% of wealthy people in our country, who do not need tax cuts and should be paying their fair share.

    Trump is also working to take your voting rights; women’s reproductive rights; deporting hundreds of immigrants, who are our neighbors; changing foreign policy to abandon Canada, Mexico and Europe for an alliance with Putin, the Russian dictator; abandoning climate change and environmental justice; and trying to eliminate our Constitution and end our Democracy.

    If you are affected and displeased with any of these policies and unlawful actions, come and join us on Saturday morning, at the Eutaw Post Office and let people see that we are resisting and protesting the Trump-Vance-Musk Administration. This is your chance to show your opposition to the things Trump and his MAGA supporters are doing to America. This is your chance to show that small rural communities, as well as big cities, do not support and want to reverse the policies, cutbacks and unjustifiable and unlawful policies of the Trump Administration.

    This protest is open to all that oppose and want to resist Trump-Vance-Musk. Bring your own handmade sign, protesting the parts of the Trump agenda you most disagree with. Sign up for future actions and protests.

    For more information, contact the Publishers of the Greene County Democrat at 205-372-3373 or by 205-657-0273.

  • Newswire : NAACP strongly opposes unfair trillion dollar tax giveaway to the wealthy

    by: Special to the AFRO

    NAACP-300x300

    BALTIMORE—The NAACP unequivocally stands in opposition to the recent Senate Tax Plan that passed in the early hours of Saturday, and the conference committee report, which Congress is voting on now. This tax legislation recklessly reclassifies our tax system to the benefit of the nation’s wealthiest and to the detriment of hardworking low and middle income communities, women and children.
    “This tax plan promotes the old fable of trickle-down economics where politicians promote the myth that over a trillion dollars in deficit-generating tax giveaways will somehow pay for themselves because the wealthy will invest that money in the economy,” said Derrick Johnson, NAACP President and CEO. “In reality, we know from previous experience that their unfair financial windfall will never trickle down to the average American.
    “What will trickle down to our communities, especially young children and families, senior citizens, disabled Americans, students and low and middle-income working families, are cuts to the programs that average Americans need to survive, including Medicaid, SNAP (food stamps), housing assistance, public education, Social Security, and Medicare.
    “In addition to a permanent tax giveaway for corporations, one of the most sickening parts of this huge tax plan is that it will remove the safety net of health insurance from nearly 13 million individuals and a disproportionate number of low-income communities of color.
    “This proposal contradicts the core American values of shared responsibility and compassion through its attempt to make inequality permanent. It handcuffs local and state government’s ability to cover education and other critical services by repealing the federal deduction for state and local income and sales taxes and capping the deduction for state property taxes.
    “The Senate proposal also leaves out children in hard working families earning low wages from an expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC). While the Senate plan expands the credit to higher-income households – including those earning up to $500,000 a year – millions of children would receive little or no benefit. Moreover, the Senate plan excludes a million immigrant children who currently qualify for the CTC.
    “While the tax code should be used as a mechanism to promote equity and the fair sharing of our nation’s services and commitments, it has instead been co-opted in a partisan way that takes even more from those who have less to make life even more favored for the 1 percent.
    “The NAACP is deeply concerned about the injustice of a tax reform that will provide 83% of its benefits to the top 1% of the people in the nation based on income,” said Johnson.