Like many people, Eureka Springs resident Betty Adkins was stunned and upset about the unexpected results of the presidential election in 2016.
“Everybody woke up in shock, depressed and unsure of where to go from there,” Adkins, who moved to Eureka Springs nine years ago, said. “Nancy Paddock put out a notice for anyone interested in doing something about the current administration to meet. That is what my partner, Janet Corley, and I did. We attended the first meeting of Indivisible Eureka Springs and then joined the group after our second meeting. Not long after that, we also joined Ozarks Indivisible. We work with them quite a bit.”
The website for Indivisible states its mission is to fuel a progressive grassroots network of local groups to resist the Trump agenda. “Every part of the progressive ecosystem is under threat by this President and Congress,” Indivisible states. “The only way to win is by standing together, indivisible.”
Adkins, a retired intensive care respiratory therapist, is grateful that the Indivisible movement has shown that there are things she can do about Trump’s attempts to destroy environmental protections, throttle free speech, eliminate healthcare for millions and give tax breaks to the rich that come at the expense of the rest of Americans.
“I can march,” Adkins said. “I can protest. I can chant. I can go to the Capitol.”
She has attended local protest events at the offices of Rep. Steve Womack and Sen. Tom Cotton, and she’s been arrested twice for peacefully protesting in Washington, D.C. when she sat near the offices of congressmen and refused to leave.
The first time Adkins was arrested was in the middle of July. It was hot and uncomfortable in the non-air conditioned holding room that has come to be known as the Barn. While waiting for paperwork to be completed, Adkins sat with another Eureka Springs protester, Harrie Farrow.
“We became cell mates, essentially, in this big holding area that looks like it used to house police cars,” Adkins said. “After about an hour they took the plastic cuffs off the back and cuffed us on the front until they were ready to release us. They took us one-by-one to do paperwork, then we each paid a $50 fine and were released.”
She flew to D.C. the first time, but the second time, on Dec. 4, it was a 20-hour drive without an overnight stay.
Adkins never thought this would be a way to spend her retirement years. But she feels passionate about the need to stand up for the things she believes in, including democracy.
“This is an opportunity to do something,” Adkins said. “My biggest issues are access to healthcare and immigration. It is shocking that Congress has not yet renewed the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Even Cotton and Boozman think it should be funded, but are holding it hostage to the tax bill. I’m pretty upset about that.”
Immigration enforcement is another issue. “What this administration is doing to harass and deport people who have lived and worked her for decades is horrible,” she said. “Because Immigration and Customs Enforcement is showing more of a presence in this area, people locally are afraid to go to health clinics for fear they will be arrested and deported. Some are afraid to go to church. When people here are deported, families are being split up.”
Adkins and her partner also have worked to hand out materials to let non-documented residents know their rights. They go to Berryville to help people with continuing education, especially reading, in preparation to take the GED, equivalent to a high school degree.
Sometimes the challenges seem overwhelming. Every day there is more news, such as environmental protections being gutted and wilderness protections being shrunk.
“But I believe together we make a difference,” she said. “I also believe in the power of one to stand up to Trump. Look at the football player who took a knee and, all of the sudden, it swept over the nation. It is people getting an idea and others like us carrying it forward.”
She hopes protests will gain in steam until they can’t be ignored. Instead of flying or driving in to be arrested and coming back home, she thinks protesters should consider not paying the $50 fine to be released and overcrowding the facility so more could not be arrested and incarcerated.
“After a while, the jails wouldn’t be big enough to hold all of us,” she said. “That’s what I’m working on. That is what I hope. Until that happens, I’m going to do what I can here.”
She voted in the past but had never been politically active as she is an introvert. Now she has joined the Carroll County Democrats.
“At times I feel guilty I didn’t do something to help sooner than I did,” she said. “I only voted. I didn’t encourage others come to the polls. I didn’t make my voice known. Trump was elected, and some of that is my fault.”
She has been disturbed to see how the exercise of free speech at the Capitol is being curtailed more and more. At first people were arrested for sit-ins, and recently people have been arrested for chanting. When people started clicking their fingers instead, they were told they would be arrested for that. Next protesters put their hands in the air. Now that is also an offense that can lead to the arrest.
“That is how they are changing the rules,” Adkins said. “They can arrest you for what they call crowding or incommoding a congressman. Basically, you can be arrested for anything like taking up their time, making a loud noise or embarrassing them. Our rights just keep being eroded.”
She has concerns about the attacks on the free press, increasing debt burdens for all but the rich, and people losing the right to free speech.
“I just see it getting worse,” she said.