By JOSEPHINE MENDEZ
The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. — Though on different sides of the street Thursday, the concerns of supporters and dissenters of President Donald Trump were the same: jobs and health care.
However, that’s where the similarities stop.
Seeping out of their designated protest area Thursday to peacefully converse with the hundreds of supporters lined up to listen to Trump speak at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena were members of 13 citizen action groups.
“Trump doesn’t care about us,” said Beverly Kimble, 58, of St. Albans, West Virginia, who was protesting with the Women’s March West Virginia. “He needs to be impeached. He has broken too many laws, and I am just totally disgusted by him.”
While supporters of Trump point to record highs in the Dow Jones and some coal mines reopening as a sign that Trump has kept his campaign promises, protesters say that is more a testament to the hard work of Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.
“Trump hasn’t even started his own policy yet,” Kimble said.
Fellow protester Pamela Riley, 64, of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, said she was disgusted with the way Trump made claims to coal miners who still believe they will be back to work soon.
“Lying and telling them that all these jobs are coming back when we all know that they’re not, that’s just awful,” she said. “I just got off the elevator with a lady who came from Kentucky who said that they just got 350 layoffs in the coal mines there. So that tells you what he’s doing. … Some of the coal mines are opening up a little bit, but they’re not going to stay open.”
Instead of promising to bring back a dying industry, Riley said Trump should instead focus his energy on training the coal miners in new types of energy.
“We’re not going to continue to burn coal forever,” she said.
Among primary concerns for Riley and the other protesters gathered were proposed changes to health care.
“Taking health care away from old people and children – this is ridiculous,” Riley said. “Nothing he has done so far has affected me in my life, but I have children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and I care about their future.”
Michael Eisenberg, 61, of Roane County, West Virginia, said he knows that without his health care, he would not be part of this protest.
“I would be dead,” he said.
Eisenberg said he and his wife are struggling with cancer, and while they are fortunate enough now to have health care, they could easily be among the millions who could lose their health insurance if Trump and his supporters are successful.
“I think it’s disgusting for our president to deliberately sabotage the health markets in order to make the Affordable Care Act fail and have millions of our own people lose health insurance,” he said.
Although he admits that the current health care system is not without its faults, more bipartisan efforts need to be made to fix the problems, not make them worse.
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