LOCAL GROUP COMMITTED TO PEACEFUL PROTESTING
By Cathy Weygandt, local community organizer - Dec 01, 2025

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As a Community Activist and Organizer for many of our local protests since the President took office, I was taken aback by State Representative Ty Mathews’s column published Nov. 26 in The Courier.  

When an outside organizer contacted me to help lead the statewide rally meeting in Findlay, the “Invest in Democracy. Divest From Death” led by OhioDivest.org, our local group declined. Our non-partisan protest group’s mission statement is “People Protecting the Constitution” and this is where we remain focused.  

Delving into the Ohio Divest website, a person can read that Ohio invests heavily in Israel’s bonds, which are unrestricted loans to Israel’s treasury. Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague lives in our community and directs these investments. Their website also states Marathon Petroleum as political donor. It stated “From Palestine to Findlay, from environmental networks to faith communities, we’re standing united to invest in democracy, not death.” Their protest cry is “Divest From Genocide; Invest In Ohio.”

So back to Mathews, who along with 250 other elected officials, traveled to Israel in September. Who paid for that tour? The reported goal at the time was to strengthen the bonds between the U.S. and Israel. Is he truly working for Ohio’s people? The idea of investing in Ohio doesn’t sound so bad. Affordable housing, public education and feeding our citizens seems to be top priority in many people’s minds lately.  

Mathews wrote that the protesters were disrespectful by their deliberate choices and lacked common decency. His main complaint? That they protested on a Sunday, a “sacred” day. “It’s rather easy to draw a conclusion that the date and location for the protest were both deliberate and intentional” he wrote. To clarify, the protest was held on Nov. 15, which was a Saturday.

Many cultures and religions worship on other days. Mathews could be reminded that he is to represent all of his constituents. As the First Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Mathews stated American Muslims for Palestine protested “to visit the backyard of others."  I observed young and old, families, White people and people of color amongst these peaceful protestors. They marched on the public sidewalks in front of the Treasurer’s home, as the First Amendment allows. Sprague is not just a “specific citizen” but an elected official who knowingly put himself out to the public when he chose to run. The protesters were well within exercising their Constitutional rights.  

Something that our local protest group does not do, the Ohio Divest group of about 200 took to Main Street to march. This put law officials in the county on high alert. Immediately there were Findlay Police Department officers on the ground, police cruisers and Ohio Highway Patrol officers on the street, Marathon security and the Hancock Sheriff’s Department as well. It looked like a rapid response for a huge terrorist threat! When simply asked, the protesters peacefully moved to march on the sidewalks.  

With our local peaceful protests, the last of almost 1,000 people in October, it has been difficult to obtain any support for security and safety from the city in response to action from counter-protestors. We have seniors sitting along the curbside, some with oxygen, who repeatedly are assaulted by trucks blowing their exhaust of “rolling coal” onto them every time. Conversely, what were the security expenses when Ohio governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy came to town?  

Lastly, Mathews wrote to say the group violated principles of respect for others and lacked common decency. I would suggest that Mathews pick up a copy of the US Constitution. Who does he serve?  

Our local group was formed when we saw citizens wanting to protest the overreach of the current administration. We initially called ourselves “50501 Findlay-Hancock County, Ohio Group” as we aligned with the national 50501 movement. It was in response to the many executive orders that were taking place, that were taking away many of our rights and freedoms. Fifty states, 50 protests and one movement became the plan. Our volunteer-led, non-partisan group has aligned with principles of the established Indivisible group as well, a “hybrid” group, per se. Indivisible and the 50501 Movement are committed to a persistent, non-violent approach of protesting and creating awareness of actions within the administration and upholding the Constitution. “People Protecting the Constitution.”