6 days Ago By Alex Husting [email protected]
Dozens of residents gathered at the Opelika Public Library on Thursday for town hall to discuss how they have been affected by changes and decisions from President Donald Trump's administration. Indivisible Auburn-Opelika, the chapter who organized the April 5 Hands Off rally in downtown Opelika , brought dozens of residents together for Thursday night's People's Town Hall meeting. The chapter invited Mike Rogers, U.
S. Congressman for Alabama's 3rd Congressional District, to attend to the town hall and speak to constituents. He declined.
"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 concerns to our elected member of Congress," Lee McInnis said, gesturing to a cardboard cutout showing Rogers' face. Lee McInnis of Indivisible Auburn/Opelika speaks during a town hall at the Opelika Public Library on Thursday, April 24, 2025.
Indivisible Auburn-Opelika is a recently formed chapter of the national organization Indivisible. Indivisible is described as "a movement of thousands of group leaders and more than a million members taking regular, iterative, and increasingly complex actions to resist the GOPs agenda, elect local champions, and fight for progressive policies," according to its website. McInnis is a veteran that moved to Opelika three years ago and helped revive the Indivisible chapter in the area.
He serves on the steering committee for Indivisible Auburn-Opelika. McInnis opened the event by emphasizing the group's non-partisan focus, meaning any and all are welcome to events like the protest and town hall. "If someone from one party or another party wants to come to us and participate, we want to be the place where they can come to where they feel like their voice is going to be heard and when they protest, they are going to be appreciated," McInnis said.
Warren Allen Tidwell, executive director of the Alabama Center for Rural Organization and Systemic Solutions (ACROSS), speaks during a town hall hosted by Indivisible Auburn/Opelika at the Opelika Public Library on Thursday, April 24, 2025. Wednesday night was the organization's second big event since the Auburn-Opelika chapter was formed around six weeks ago. McInnis said they noticed Congress was in recess around this time so the organization invited Rogers to attend a town hall for constituents of the district.
Alabama's 3rd Congressional District includes all of Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne, Lee, Randolph and St. Clair counties as well as most of Talladega County. Rogers office did not respond to request for comment prior to publication of this article.
McInnis said that in declining, Rogers said he had prescheduled events. "We felt it was important to get the people of Lee County—and broader of the 3rd Congressional District—together to have a conversation about the direction we think the country is going," McInnis said after the town hall. Amy Thomas of Auburn University speaks during a town hall hosted by Indivisible Auburn/Opelika at the Opelika Public Library on Thursday, April 24, 2025.
Thomas is the director of research program development and grants in the university’s College of Science and Mathematics. That conversation included five speakers: Amy Thomas, director of research program development and grants in the College of Sciences and Mathematics at Auburn University; Dr. Nicole DuPraw Carter, a pediatrician in Opelika; Elizabeth Guertal, former program director for the Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab at Kansas State University; Warren Alan Tidwell, co-executive director of the Alabama Center for Rural Organizing and Systemic Solutions, and McInnis, a veteran with six years in the U.
S. Army and 28 as a civilian with the Department of Defense. All shared how policies of the current Trump administration have affected them.
Thomas said that there are four R1 institutions in the state of Alabama, including Auburn, that receive funding for federal research and the overall economic impact of that federally funded research is over $916 million. She said in the past few months they have seen directives going against spending funds on what has been labeled as DEI activities as well as the government auditing for "frivolous spending." Carter said that public health is not political and she criticized several decisions from the current administration, including U.
S. leaving the World Health Organization and the firing of 10,000 employees at the Department of Health and Human Services. Auburn University professor Elizabeth Guetral speaks during a town hall hosted by Indivisible Auburn/Opelika at the Opelika Public Library on Thursday, April 24, 2025.
Guetral teaches turfgrass and nutrient management in the university’s College of Agriculture. For Guertal, the lab at KSU worked directly with U.S.
Agency for International Development, which was effectively dismantled and shut down by the Trump administration earlier this year. The lab was one of 19 Feed the Future labs across the U.S.
that funded research and innovation in agricultural sciences across the world. Guertail said staff she worked with in countries like Senegal and Guatemala were laid off all at once. "A rising tide lifts all boats.
USAID was our international tide. They were soft diplomacy at the softest. They created means for us to impact millions of people across this planet," Guertal said.
"Understand that the .3% of the federal budget. That tide lifted a lot of goodwill, and it's gone now, and we have created a vacuum.
" Tidwell said ACROSS was formed after the 2023 Camp Hill hale storm that destroyed decks, cars and severely damaged homes in the town. Tidwell said it has been a two-year process of finding ways to fix the houses for residents that needed the help, but the federal funding freeze means the funds are not there right now. He also criticized the effective closing of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which supported dozens of Camp Hill residents.
Dr. Nicole Carter, a local pediatrician, speaks during a town hall hosted by Indivisible Auburn/Opelika at the Opelika Public Library on Thursday, April 24, 2025. McInnis closed by directing a series of questions to Rogers, all related decisions by the Trump administration affecting the military, veterans and more.
Those included plans to fire 80,000 employee at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, the firing of 2,600 VA employees including those on the staff of the Veterans Crisis Line, the administration's actions in the war in Ukraine.
Then, the town hall floor was opened to questions from the audience, all directed at the cardboard cutout of Rogers. The questions levied against Rogers covered topics like care and support for veterans, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
plans for studying autism , cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Education, the shooting at Florida State University, high taxes and much more.
Community members direct questions and comments to a carboard cutout of U.S. Rep.
Mike Rogers during a town hall hosted by Indivisible Auburn/Opelika at the Opelika Public Library on Thursday, April 24, 2025. Rogers, who represents Alabama's 3rd Congressional District, declined an invitation to participate in the meeting. McInnis said the town hall was recorded and will be sent to Rogers.
As for what is next, McInnis said the chapter will be supporting Indivisible Birmingham as it plans a protest of President Trump giving a special commencement speech at the University of Alabama in May. Locally, Indivisible Auburn-Opelika have two planned meetings coming up and the rest is sort of up in the air for the new organization, which McInnis said is floored by the success of their first two events. "We are not affiliated with the Democratic Party.
Many of us are liberals. I won't argue that, but I know some people that were here tonight that are not liberals, people that are republicans that came tonight," McInnis said. "We are an independent organization that is just giving people that are very frustrated about what is happening, an opportunity to speak.
" Residents of Alabama's 3rd Congressional District direct questions to a cardboard cutout of Rep. Mike Rogers during a town hall hosted by Indivisible Auburn/Opelika at the Opelika Public Library on Thursday, April 24, 2025. Rogers declined an invitation to participate in the event.
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