Fridays With Fitzpatrick Demonstrators Rail Against Paris Withdrawal

The passionate demonstrators who gather outside of Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick’s office every Friday were riled up this week after President Donald Trump’s recent announcement that the United States will withdraw from the Paris Accord.

“This week we’ve aligned with Syria against the world in saving the planet,” said Steve Cickay, a Newtown resident and one of the prominent members of the Friday’s with Fitzpatrick group.

About 35 people turned out to show their support for the climate agreement outside the Republican’s Middletown office and to urge Fitzpatrick to stand up to party leadership regarding Trump’s recent announcement.

Days before the announcement, Fitzpatrick released a statement urging the president to stay within the agreement, but to be open to a renegotiation.

“I share Secretary of Defense Mattis’ view that this challenge must be addressed proactively and head-on, and I agree with both our Secretary of State and Secretary of Energy that retaining our seat at this table is vitally important. A renegotiation is a better option and will benefit our nation in the long run,” Fitzpatrick’s statement ends.

Steve Bacher spoke at the protest. The very existence of the Paris Accord as a collective of so many countries is a huge accomplishment, he said.

“It is absolutely insane for the United States to pull out, because the goals would have been our own goals,” he explained.

Under the multi-national agreement, each country is responsible for defining their own contributions.

Bacher went on to note that the loss of coal jobs should not necessarily be lamented and that workers in those industry could potentially be re-trained for jobs in renewable energy.

“I think we need more outrage from our representative about these horrible decisions, and the silence really is deafening,” Cickay said.

“Forget about all of the good work by people like Obama and Al Gore, it’s all about money,” said Mitch Federman, a Yardley resident who has been attending the Fridays with Fitzpatrick for a few months.

Other topics of conversation at the protest included fracking, pipelines, the Elcon project and veteran affairs.