Lisa Feldman and Dean McBeth have been married for over 40 years. They’ve been attending protests and rallies for even longer.
In the ‘70s, the pair rallied for the Equal Rights Amendment and Roe v. Wade and protested the draft during the Vietnam War. Now both in their 70s, the Cortlandt residents said they have attended a protest almost every weekend since President Trump’s reelection.
On Saturday, Feldman and McBeth donned their raincoats in case of poor weather and attended a rally sandwiched between the train tracks and the Hudson River at Ossining’s Louis Engel Waterfront Park. There, over 100 community members gathered to pressure Mike Lawler, the republican congressional representative for New York’s 17th district, to vote against cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.
The rally came in response to Lawler’s recent vote for the House Republican Party’s proposal that would cut $880 billion from Medicaid as part of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
Medicaid is a government health insurance program that, according to health.ny.gov, around 40% of New Yorkers were enrolled in as of December 2023. Lawler argues that these cuts would reduce waste and eliminate fraud within the system. However, opponents, like those at the Ossining rally, believe the large cuts would unfairly strip many New Yorkers of their access to the program.
Most of the protestors at the event were around the same age as Feldman and McBeth. In fact, there were fewer than a handful of attendants who were visibly under the age of 25.
Multiple used mobility aids and many brought folding chairs to sit during the almost 2-hour-long event. One protester at the front of the crowd even wore a nasal oxygen cannula while holding a sign that read “Hands off our healthcare.”
McBeth said as a 74-year-old man, his age inspires him to stay politically active.
“I can’t do nothing…” he said. “I think people with my skin color, my privilege, my agency, have to put some of that agency on the line because it’s now or never.”
And he certainly has. In addition to this Saturday’s event, McBeth has attended protests all across Westchester and in Manhattan. During the two and a half months before the presidential election, McBeth said he knocked on doors every weekend. In total, he estimates he canvassed around 400 houses.
Fellow senior protestors gathered around the stage at the small park. They waved American flags, carried banners, and showed off homemade signs reading messages like “These cuts will cost lives,” “We paid for our social security,” and “Save the safety net.”
The designated sign creator of the duo, Feldman made one that said, “Don’t be cowed, be loud,” with a picture of an angry-looking cow pasted in the middle. Having made a different sign for almost every protest she’s attended, Feldman said this was not her favorite sign. That one had two foam balls glued to it and encouraged lawmakers and judges to “Grow a pair.”
Protestors used whistles, air horns, tambourines, bongo drums, cowbells and more to make their demands heard. They also repeated chants like “Not a dime. Not a dollar. No more cuts, from Mike Lawler,” towards the river to symbolically shout at the representative, who lives on the other side of the Hudson in Pearl River.
Representatives from organizations and unions like the Working Families Party, the Westchester-Putnan Central Labor Body, and Make The Road Action took turns speaking to the crowd as well as members of local government such as Ossining mayor Rika Levin and Westchester County Legislator Emiljana Ulaj.
Emily Feiner, a 64-year-old retired social worker, also took to the stage. On May 5, Feiner was carried out of Lawler’s town hall by multiple New York State Police troopers. She asked the representative where he drew the line with Trump violating court orders, and stood up to ask him again to answer it after feeling he had not done so sufficiently. She was then removed from the town hall.
“Many people have called me brave for standing up at Mike Lawler’s town hall…” Feiner said. “But I am not a particularly brave person. I am an angry person. I am angry at the devastation caused by this administration and abetted by Mike Lawler.”
Feldman and McBeth both echoed this political frustration. Feldman said she felt like she was able to coast for a few decades, not having to be too politically active due to relative stability. Now, she feels like so much progress has been undone that she has to fight for the future she will leave her children and grandchildren.
Feldman said it was “very upsetting” to her that there weren’t more young people in attendance at the rally.
Believing many of the Trump administration’s policies to be regressive, she said she questions if younger generations know what they’re losing as a result. She wondered what has to be done to convince younger people to care and speak out.
“I find the world getting increasingly more frightening,” Feldman said. “We thought we paid our dues and not only are we back where we started, but we’re farther behind.”
Feldman said she believes the lack of younger protestors at some of the rallies she attends stems from “a big feeling of hopelessness” amongst people in their 20s.
Another lifelong activist, Joe Mayhew, said he sees this level of apathy, not in young people, but in politicians. As one of the primary speakers at the event, the retired Air Force veteran and current Communication Workers of America local 1103 member believes that, if passed, these cuts will lead to hospital layoffs and rises in personal insurance costs.
He said this will affect all New Yorkers, even those not on Medicaid.
Mayhew said in addition to his pleas at rallies, he has called Lawler many times and even spoken to him face to face.
“I hear the same canned answers from him all the time, and it’s not what’s going to protect people,” he said.
Having previously spoken at similar rallies in Tarrytown, Hastings, and Mt. Kisco, which drew larger participation. Mayhew said at those events, he saw a more mixed age range in the crowd because Medicaid impacts everyone, regardless of age.
“You can almost throw a stick and hit somebody who’s affected by these cuts…” he said. “Everybody gets it because it affects everybody. It doesn’t just affect a class of people that you think no one cares about, it affects every single one of us.”
