Rally Tomorrow!

Tomorrow, Sunday, March 16, at 2:00 p.m., there will be a rally in the Public Square, a.k.a. Seventh Street Park, to protest the Trump administration's policies and cuts to government agencies. 

Gossips received this press release this morning from the organizers of the event:

New York Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado will be the keynote speaker at a rally to protest Trump Administration's policies in Hudson's 7th Street Park on March 16 at 2 p.m.

Organized by Stand Up/Speak Out, formed by members of the NY19 Votes Coalition, the rally will focus public attention on the harm that Donald Trump and the unelected billionaire Elon Musk are inflicting on the American people in order to give the wealthy more tax cuts. The illegal gutting of government agencies and the indiscriminate layoffs of hundreds of thousands of federal employees will wreak havoc on critical agencies and the services they provide.

Most of the dismissed federal employees work outside of Washington, including in the Hudson Valley. So the firings will hurt not only the workers but also local economies.

The service cuts will reduce access to healthcare and social services, make air travel less safe, make food and drugs less safe, rob farmers of the government grants they were promised, let vulnerable children go hungry, cut off cancer research, limit the tracking of disease outbreaks, and leave consumers unprotected from predatory lenders.

These and other cuts are designed to persuade hardline conservatives in the House to approve another huge tax break for the wealthy. Stand Up/Speak Out believes that the needs of the American people should come before the desire of billionaires to buy more yachts.

We also oppose Trump's across-the-board tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, which will drive up consumer costs as prices rise for imported goods. These tariffs, in effect, are consumption taxes that will be passed on to the American people. Those who voted for Trump in November wanted lower prices, not higher taxes. The sharp selloff in the financial markets indicates that investors don't support Trump's tariffs and believe they will hurt the economy.

Besides Delgado, the confirmed speakers for the rally include Dr. Carl Atkins, a member of the Columbia County Democratic Committee and Indivisible Columbia, who will speak about the potential impact of Medicaid cuts on local healthcare; Michael Richardson, a leader of Third Act, who will address Trump policies on the environment and climate change; Wes Gillingham of Catskill Mountainkeeper, a local farmer who will talk about the purge of vital data from the USDA website; Madeline Reilly, of Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood; Rennie Glasgow, who represents Local 3343 of the American Federation of Government Employees; Assemblymember Didi Barrett; and State Senator Michelle Hinchey.

The cosponsors of the March 16 rally include NY19 Votes Coalition, Indivisible Columbia NY, Indivisible Ulster, Left Field, the Berkshire Brigades, Bethlehem Indivisible, Stephentown Indivisible, Third Act Upstate New York, Rivers & Mountains Green Faith, the Rural Freedom Network, Citizens Action, Columbia County Democratic Committee, and Claverack Democratic Committee.