BY MICHAELA YIELDING
FOR THE OBSERVER
EAST ALABAMA — A local political group, Opelika-Auburn Indivisible, hosted a People’s Town Hall on April 24 at the Opelika Public Library. The purpose of the meeting was to provide an opportunity for inter-action between U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (D-AL) and constituents of Alabama’s Third Congressional District.
Rogers declined a public invitation to attend the event. When The Observer reached out for comment, his communications director provided the following statement: “Congressman Rog-ers lives in the district and is in near constant contact with his constituents and local leaders. The Democratic Party has encouraged activists to hold events that they have branded as ‘town halls’ in an effort to ambush Republican members of Congress. We welcome any constituents to contact any of our three offices.”
The town hall meeting proceeded without Rogers. In his absence, organizers displayed a life-size cardboard standup of the congressman.
“As a nonpartisan group, we want to emphasize that the purpose of this meeting is not to attack or criticize any specific political party — it is merely an opportunity to express your con-cerns to our elected member of Congress,” said Lee McInnis, an organizer of the event.
McInnis asked those in attendance if any of them had ever reached out to speak with Rogers, and in response, multiple attendees raised their hands. However, when they were asked to keep their hand up if Rogers ever responded, nearly all hands were lowered.
Constituents who spoke at the town hall expressed concerns that the Trump Administration’s DOGE-related budget cuts would have devastating impacts.
The first citizen speaker was Amy Thomas, who spoke of her concern for protecting Alabama’s level one research institutions (Auburn University, the University of Alabama, UAB and UAH).
“I work day-in and day-out with the most brilliant people that I’ve ever met, whose only goal is to further science in this country,” she said. “They are not out to make money. They don’t make a profit from it — it is the most audited group of funding, by far. There is not frivolous spending in this, and so to be under attack right now is the most ridiculous thing that I can think this gov-ernment could spend its efforts on.”
Thomas said the four institutions have a $916 million impact in the state of Alabama per year.
“If we lose that federal funding we halt the forwardness of even basic science,” she said. “I can see the writing on the wall, that maybe the goal of this is to turn this over to capitalism and let companies run research but if that’s the case, companies aren’t going to invest in basic re-search. Basic research is high risk, and it has a very long return — it’s not going to be some-thing the private sector invest in, and if we halt basic research, we don’t ever get that applied research, and we will fall short.”
The next citizen speaker, Nicole Carter, who has lived in Auburn for 21 years and has been a practicing pediatrician for 26 years, said she is concerned about the cutting of public health funding.
“First of all, public health is not political,” she said. “Let me say that again, public health is not and should not be political.”
Carter explained that everyone is affected by public health, whether it is infectious diseases, cancer research or access to healthcare. She expressed concerns about the Trump Administra-tion pulling the U.S. out of the World Health Organization, as well as about the layoffs of more than 10,000 civil servants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Warren Tidwell, another of Rogers’ constituents who spoke at the town hall, expressed con-cerns about poverty and lack of services for economically depressed rural communities, such as Camp Hill. The small town in neighboring Tallapoosa County was decimated when hail roughly two inches in size pelted the town in March 2023, leaving damage to homes, cars and infra-structure. Two weeks later, the community dealt with a mass shooting that killed four and in-jured 32.
Tidwell said 60% of the people in Camp Hill live below the poverty line, are elderly and have a difficult time getting to the town’s only store with groceries, a Dollar General located across Highway 280. He said the Camp Hill community depends on aid for food, home repairs and oth-er support services that better the lives of the citizens. He said he has begged Rogers and other congressman to help Camp Hill and address the community’s issues.
Others in attendance had a variety of questions they wanted to ask Rogers, ranging from how he would address proposed cuts to the Veterans Administration and Medicare to how the con-gressman would protect marginalized groups in Lee County, such as those with autism and oth-er disabilities and the LGBT community.
Rain Smith, a soon-to-be Auburn University graduate, made a powerful statement regarding public safety.
“As a 9-year-old student, a gunman opened fire 10 minutes from my school at Sandy Hook Ele-mentary, and last week as a 21-year-old student, a gunman opened fire on Florida State Uni-versity’s campus,” she said. “So, with that, I only have two questions. Is that something that just happens? And is Auburn University next?”
Addressing the cardboard cutout of Rogers, she said, “Good answer. We students are unsur-prised by your silence, but we appreciate your cardboard thoughts and prayers.”
Lloyd Bryant of Dadeville, a caretaker of two disabled Vietnam veterans, was also in attendance and said he had questions for the congressman.
“On behalf of one of those veterans, and that’s my father — he is a 78-year-old man that went to Vietnam — he is disabled, and I am here to ask you the same questions that he asked me, which are, ‘Am I going to stop getting paid? And are they going to take my benefits away from me?’ So, every day I have to hear that question, I want to ask you that same question,” Bryant said.
“I tell my father constantly that this was a contract the United States signed with my father when he agreed to represent the United States and to go be an employee of the United States — there’s a contract that they’ve signed that they would take care of them. Yet now you’re cutting the services we promised these veterans they would have once they came back.
“You were on the Armed Services Committee, and you know that this state relies heavily on the veterans and their services here, so what are you going to do to stand up and make sure that my father and everyone else that is affected has those services?” Bryant asked Rogers’ card-board cutout. “When are you going to stand up and make sure that my father and everyone else that is affected has those services? When are you going to step up and make sure that Ala-bama takes care of its vets and that we’re not closing the VAs when they need them so desper-ately?”
Les Alton, a retired citizen also addressed the absent congressman.
“We know you’re intelligent — we know you see what’s going on,” Alton said. “We know you see that the Trump Administration is tearing down this country. You have the power to do something. Sir, are you going to grow a spine?”
Following the town hall, participants expressed hope for the future of the community.
“Although we would have preferred to have Congressman Rogers attend the People’s Town Hall, the event still provided an opportunity for members of our community to have their voices heard and to build relationships with their neighbors,” said Carter. “Many attendees told us that they left feeling engaged and hopeful about affecting change in our country. We hope that this will only be the beginning of our group’s works to defend democracy.”
Auburn-Opelika Indivisible organizers sent a recording of the People’s Town Hall to Rogers in an effort to ensure the congressman was aware of citizen viewpoints expressed there.
The next Auburn-Opelika Indivisible meeting will be held on Sunday, May 4, at 4 p.m. at Town Creek Park. The group said everyone, again including Rep. Mike Rogers, is invited.
