Veteran kicked out of GOP town hall speaks during Asheville rally
Jay Carey, an Arden veteran, had been thrown out of Congressman Chuck Edwards town hall in mid-March after confronting him on his support for Donald Trump’s agenda.
While Transylvania County is considered politically conservative, the protest organizers noted a significant increase in local activism and support for their cause.Although some passersby expressed opposition, the majority showed support for the protesters.
BREVARD – Some 200 people gathered outside the Transylvania County Courthouse April 19, organizers estimated, who came to protest recent actions by President Trump’s administration that they say jeopardize the environment and American democracy.
Protesters lined the sidewalks with signs reading “No Kings,” “Hands Off National Forests and Public Lands” and “Demand Due Process or You May Be Next.”
Wayne Clark, a member of one of the sponsoring groups, Transylvania Partnership for Democracy, said that they had taken part in the April 5 “Hands Off protests,” where they saw 450 people in Brevard, many of them “first-timers” who hadn’t attended protests before. Another rally in Asheville also had strong turnout April 5. The April 19 rally in Brevard, Clark said, was a follow up “to keep the momentum going.”
The “Defend Democracy. Guard the Earth,” rally April 19 was organized by a coalition of county level activist groups: Good Trouble Transylvania, the Transylvania NAACP, the Transylvania Partnership for Democracy, Transylvania Young Progressives and the Transylvania County Democratic Party.
James Carli, a leader of the Transylvania Young Progressives, said this rally is the third that he’s been involved in since March 1, when the Trump administration issued an executive order to allow increased logging in national forests. His group organized a protest at Pisgah National Forest soon after and, through working with the coalition, their work has “snowballed” into something bigger.
“Protecting public lands is something that’s largely non-partisan. Conservatives, liberals, apoliticals. They take the forests for granted,” Carli said.
He said he’s grateful that it is now dawning on people “that we can’t take those for granted anymore.”
Perhaps because of this wide appeal, his group is seeing significant support locally.
“Over 1,000 people follow us on different social media channels, mostly within this community,” he said. “For a town of 8,000 people, in a county of 33,000 people, that ain’t bad.”
Dal Davis, chair of the racial justice group of the Transylvania NAACP and a board member of Hendersonville Pride, said that economic issues are also pushing people to support the Transylvania County coalition.
“Seeing Social Security at risk is terrifying. We have an older community here, and that being on the chopping block, and people understanding that they’ve paid into it their whole life, is a huge activating force,” he said.
“The unfortunate thing is Transylvania isn’t activated over racial issues because of the demographics here.”
Many passing drivers honked their horns and waved in support of the protesters, while others showed their opposition.
One passing driver, apparently a counter-protester, “rolled coal” as they drove by, blowing a large plume of black smoke out their exhaust pipe onto picketers on the sidewalk.
This kind of reaction was the exception to the rule, though, said Kathleen Barnes, an executive committee member of the Transylvania NAACP.
Of all the passersby that interact with them, “probably 10-to-1 are people supporting us and waving and all that,” she said. “That just proves that we’re not alone, and it gives people some courage.”
She had expected only about 100 people to turn out because of the Easter holiday, but around twice that many ultimately did.
“People think this is deep-red country,” she said. “Well, it may be, but I think more and more people are joining us because the policies of the current administration are hurting people, and it wasn’t really what they voted for.”
The Transylvania “NAACP had a town hall in early February, less than two weeks after the inauguration,” she continued. “We thought 20 or 30 people would show up; 150 people showed up. We didn’t have enough chairs (or) enough space in the hall for the fire marshals.”
George Fabe Russell is the Henderson County Reporter for the Hendersonville Times-News. Tips, questions, comments? Email him at GFRussell@gannett.com.