Hundreds protest against President on Labor Day

NORTH RIDGEVILLE — Protestors took to streets and sidewalks across the country on Labor Day to decry the current president and billionaires' influence on politics. Lorain County was no exception. Organized in part by Nichole Geibel, with the North Ridgeville Democratic Party, Monday's protest saw more than 300 people fill the tree lawn on Lorain Road between Lear Nagle Road and the highway on-ramp with signs protesting the current administration. "We're trying to remind people that the backbone of our country is the workers," she said. "Our county doesn't grow, our county doesn't move if we don't have workers — our country doesn't move." She credited labor unions for benefits and worker protections, including sick pay and five-day work weeks. The protests that are part of larger, nationwide actions are usually better attended, Geibel said, noting there were a number of new faces at Monday's event mixed in with longtime attendees. Rachelle Lasky-Bilz, of New Russia Township, said Monday was her fifth protest this year. "I feel it is important to fight the evil we are seeing in our country right now," she said. A retired librarian, Lasky-Bliz was politically active in college but found her voice again during the president's second term. "I didn't feel as horribly upset as I am now," she said, adding it feels like the country has taken a turn toward totalitarianism. She held a sign calling for freedom, democracy, truth and "no king." Mike Thompson, of Elyria, marched from one end of the group of protesters to the other, carrying an upside-down American flag that flapped in the wind. Traditionally used as a distress signal, an inverted flag has more recently become a form of protest. Thompson attends protests weekly in Lorain County and has stood alone in downtown Elyria with his inverted flag and anti-Trump T-shirts several times, he said. "This country's falling apart — they're destroying it," he said. For Geibel, the ongoing protests against President Donald Trump and others in his administration are an exercise in First Amendment rights that brings hundreds of like-minded people together each week. "I organize these because it feels like community," she said. "We have a huge community of people that come out weekly, and when we're all together, it brings a sense of hope." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.