WASHINGTON — On the 81st anniversary of D-Day, a handful of Alabamians joined in a rally with veterans protesting against the Trump administration’s cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the federal government.
Amid a sea of American flags and handheld signs on the National Mall Friday, stood army veteran Zeb Lemon. He was one of thousands rallying to defend veterans and their families.
“The stereotype of veterans is that they’re conservative and that they don’t care about people’s feelings, and they’re unmoving…but the speeches we’ve heard all day out here and the T-shirts that we’ve seen and the signs, everybody’s on board with this, love and freedom for all,” Lemon told Alabama Daily News. “I just think that’s amazing to see.”
Melanie Kolowski, also from Huntsville, was with Lemon at Friday’s protest. She said her reasons for being at the rally were personal. Her son’s father, who was a veteran, died by suicide.
“With all the VA cuts and stuff, that makes me really concerned, especially just with the climate of our country right now, for those veterans that are really struggling, that spent that time serving, and then they’re seeing this happen to their country, or their medicines getting taken away,” Kolowski said.
The Trump administration aims to reshape the VA, proposing to eliminate over 80,000 positisons from the department that administers health care to veterans. Veterans also make up about a quarter of the federal workforce.
“It’s so disrespectful, and it hurts my heart, just because, I mean, they spend so much time,” Kolowski said. “These people love their country.”
The ‘Unite for Veterans, Unite for America Rally’ aimed to bring veterans and their allies together to decry the VA cuts and federal government firings.
Kolowski and Lemon are part of Purple People Resistance Alabama, a “grassroots organization dedicated to defending our constitutional rights against authoritarianism,” according to their social media. They encourage others to show up to different rallies and protests like the one on the National Mall to fight for freedom and justice.
“We need to do this because it seems scary now to people, but the more we don’t stand up, and the more we don’t push back against this, the scarier it’s going to be,” Lemon said.
Simultaneous protests also happened across the country on Friday, honoring the 81st anniversary of D-Day, when Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, marking a pivotal moment in World War II.
Numerous veterans and VA workers spoke at the rally detailing their stories of service and sacrifice.