UAW octogenarian donned a chicken suit to show his congressman is too chicken to hold a town hall
UPDATE: THE APRIL 5 INDIVISIBLE "HANDS OFF! NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION" HAS BEEN SET FOR 1 TO 3 P.M. AT PADUCAH PLUMBERS AND STEAMFITTERS LOCAL 184, 1127 BROADWAY. "Much gratitude to Derrick Sanderson and the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 184," said Leslie McColgin of Four Rivers Indivisible, the local affiliate of the national Indivisible organization. Click here to sign up.
By BERRY CRAIG
AFT-KEA/NEA retiree
First District Congressman James Comer is all-MAGA all the time.
So the Republican opted for a Trumpian response when 82-year-old United Auto Workers retiree Jerry Sykes and four other of protestors showed up in chicken suits outside his Paducah field office last Thursday.
The quintet and other protestors hoped to convince the congressman to hold a town hall.
“He’s a chicken if he won’t,” said Sykes from inside his bright yellow nylon outfit with an oversize head, red beak and matching bow tie.
Comer was so irate that he had his staff fire off a statement that said their boss “does not plan on holding therapy sessions for left-wing activists suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome.” In other words, he's chicken to face the homefolks.
Comer is hardly alone among GOP lawmakers who aren’t keen on town halls these days. A slew of voters are angry at President Donald Trump and Co-president Elon Musk for taking a meat axe to the federal government and the civil service.
Protests have even spread to the most crimsoned of Republican Red states, including Kentucky, where Trump won 64.5 percent of the vote last year. Comer collected nearly 75 percent of First District ballots.
No matter, Sykes said, “Comer can’t seem to find his way back to western Kentucky.”
Four Rivers Indivisible sponsored hour-long protests on most Thursdays in February and March. Last Thursday was a sort of grand finale, hence the chicken costumes. At one time or another as many as three dozen people kept the chickens company on the sidewalk, holding signs and waving at passersby on the city’s busy South Third Street. Several motorists honked their horns and flashed thumbs up to show their support.
After WPSD-TV, Paducah’s NBC affiliate, covered the protest, some of the national media picked up the story.
Comer might believe his schoolyard bully response burnished his tough-guy creds and scared off the protestors for good. But they’ll be back in town on April 5 for what Four Rivers hopes will be a larger rally that will be part of nationwide Indivisible program called “Hands Off! National Day of Action.” Chicken suits are expected to be reprised.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them,” says the Hands Off 2025 website. “They're taking everything they can get their hands on, and daring the world to stop them. On Saturday, April 5th, we're taking to the streets nationwide to fight back with a clear message: Hands off!”
Plans for the Paducah event are underway, according to Four Rivers co-leader Leslie McColgin, who lives in nearby Graves County.
Anyway, when Sykes heard chicken costumes will be on offer again, he agreed to suit up anew. An Indivisible member, he lives in Marshall County, which is also close to Paducah.
Sykes said he’d walked many a picket line and joined multiple peaceful protests. But last week was the first time he’d donned a chicken costume.
“I didn’t feel I needed to before,” explained Sykes who worked for Chrysler (now Stellantis) in Warren, Mich. “If a chicken suit is what I need to wear, I’ll do it again in a heartbeat.”
Sykes chuckled when he heard Comer’s snarky slam. “He just a water boy for President Trump," the octogenarian said. "He only does what the president tells him to do."
Comer is the bungling chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. “Now, we’ve had a lot of fun with this dope for the past three-and-a-half years as he gorged on self-importance, pursuing a laughable impeachment inquiry into President Biden that attracted nothing but ridicule, and deservedly so,” wrote Northern Kentucky Tribune columnist and veteran journalist Bill Straub last September. “He was belittled throughout the process, which went nowhere, emerging as a walking, talking punchline.”
Sykes said western Kentuckians--Republicans, Democrats and independents--are united in demanding “to know where Congressman Comer stands on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, abolishing the Education Department and all those terrible things Trump is doing to us. The people are fed up with it."