Protesters mark 50th ‘Mondays with Meuser’ amid concerns over Iran, ICE

Lee Smedley has been to many of the Mondays with Meuser protests held weekly on the steps of the Lebanon County municipal building. 

And yesterday, the 50th protest, was no exception. 

Since last March, protestors have gathered most Mondays at the county building to protest U.S. Congressman Dan Meuser (PA-9). Organizer Michael Schroeder highlighted yesterday why protestors have met in good and bad weather over the past year. Monday’s temperature was a bone-chilling 30 degrees under mostly cloudy skies.

“This is like the bottom line for any public representative to meet with their constituents and listen to their concerns. He (Meuser) met with a small delegation of us once, but since then, he’s only held tightly choreographed, by-invitation-only public meetings. And so again, that remains at the top of our list in terms of our demands of Dan Meuser,” Schroeder said. “But secondly, and just as important, is to adhere to his oath of office to protect and support the Constitution of the United States of America, which he is manifestly not doing now, particularly with this war on Iran.”

Questions emailed to Meuser’s office concerning the Iranian attack this past weekend and the early February signings of ICE agreements by four Lebanon County law enforcement agencies had not received a response as of publication.

Before playing guitar and singing during the musical portion of the protest, Smedley offered LebTown a history lesson after he said he opposes the most recent U.S. military operation in Iran.

Early Saturday morning, President Donald Trump ordered the bombing of Iran, an action that led to the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other regime officials.

Smedley said the bombing of Iran over its nuclear capabilities and regime change was seeded by actions of the American government beginning as early as the 1950s.

“This is like deja vu over Iran. If you read the history of the U.S.-Syria-Iran relationships, in 1953, there was a takeover the CIA backed that put the shah in power and there was a program called ‘Atoms for Peace’ that Eisenhower was in charge of to bring nuclear power to Iran,” said Smedley, who lives in Annville. “So that’s where they got all this stuff to start with. And then that fell apart in 1979.”

The Iran hostage crisis began on Nov. 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, with 52 of them being held until Jan. 20, 1981. 

“Bad reaction, and now we’re going to start the cycle over again. That’s my fear. So it’s a sad situation. And Gary Gates, who’s my co-writer and singer, has a song that riffs off of the song ‘Barbara Ann’ called ‘Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,'” Smedley said. “We’re gonna do that one today.”

Smedley and Gates performed two additional tunes, including “Letter to Dan,” which is a play on the Joe Cocker song, “The Letter,” and a revamped version of “When the Saints Go Marching in,” whose lyrics call for the abolishment of ICE.

Other speakers included protest organizer Michael Schroeder, who offered his four themes of war that he used to share with students when he was a college professor. 

During comments to a crowd of over 60 protestors, many of whom carried protest signs while others waved large American flags, Schroeder said wars are profitable, historically bad for democracy, easy to start but hard to end, and tend to spiral out of control.

“One of the major themes of wars overseas is that war is very good for business, particularly big business and big tech,” Schroeder said. “So you can expect that this war will be enormously profitable for big defense industries and for big tech. Secondly, wars tend to be very bad for democracy and for civil liberties.”

Schroeder referenced several historic examples of restrictions on free speech during wartime, including the jailing of Eugene V. Debs for violating the Alien Sedition Act.

Schroeder said he believes that launching a war on Iran is a way for the current administration to accomplish multiple things, including the suspension of civil liberties. 

“My suspicion is, and this is just my interpretation, that the war on Iran is not only a distraction from the Epstein files, it is a way to try to generate a state of emergency so that parts of the Constitution can be suspended and an emergency declared, and the elections of 2026 be postponed or subverted,” he said. “Many other scholars and historians have that same concern. It’s the classic tactic of tyrants and dictators.”

Schroeder highlighted the idea that war comes easily but is hard to end.

“The third major theme that I continually emphasized to my students is that wars are very easy to start and very hard to end. We saw that in Afghanistan, we saw that in Iraq, we saw that in Vietnam, we saw that in many episodes of U.S. intervention overseas. Wars are very easy to start, but they can be devilishly difficult to end,” he said.

He noted that the final thought is “perhaps the scariest.” 

“Wars assume a momentum of their own. They tend to spin out of control. … You know, events happen. Events unfold,” he said. “You think you have control over events but events assume a momentum of their own. And wars serve as a solvent of social relationships, as a solvent of institutions, and dissolving institutions, and dissolving norms, and tend to spin out of control. And so let’s just pray and hope and work toward an outcome where that does not happen with this war on Iran.” 

He added: “It is an extremely dangerous moment and a treacherous and a perilous moment, not only for the United States of America, but for the world.”

Schroeder stated he agrees with the administration that the regime in Iran is brutal.

“This is not to give any credence or to any sympathy to the regime itself. … The evidence is that the regime massacred tens of thousands of people in the most recent uprisings. So this is an incredibly brutal regime. But is it the role of the United States of America to exercise regime change?” he asked. “If we wage war against every tyrannical regime on planet Earth, we’d be waging war against half the nations on planet Earth: North Korea, China, Russia, Hungary, Turkey, Syria, the list goes on and on and on.” 

Other speakers aired their concerns. One attendee – Lou Felli of Myerstown, a former Lebanon County sheriff and district attorney employee – took umbrage with his former department agreeing to work with the Immigration and Enforcement office. 

“ICE working with our sheriff’s department is not good. In two weeks, they killed two Americans. They shot one in the face and they shot another one in the back. … And that’s who they want to cooperate with. And they want ICE to train them. Is that who you want to train our deputies? Is that who you want to deputize our deputies?” Felli asked to shouts of “No!” to both questions. 

“They should protect the people. The thing that gets me, that makes my skin boil when they said that they want to cooperate with us, tells me one thing. That they had no interest in protecting the citizens of Lebanon County,” Felli said. “It’s all political expediency to work with ICE. And money. They’re getting paid. And I’ll tell you another thing, you wait until these guys in the sheriff’s office start facing litigation for racial profiling. That’s when the shit’s gonna hit the fan.”

Lebanon County Sheriff Jeffrie Marley, who told LebTown he or one of his deputies has monitored every gathering from inside the municipal building to protect the safety of the protestors, said he invited Felli after the protest to meet with him to discuss his department’s involvement in the ICE agreement. 

Schroeder announced during the event that protestors will attend this Thursday’s commissioners meeting at 9:30 a.m. to ask them to sign a resolution prohibiting county officials from working with the federal agency.

Also, a No Kings Rally is scheduled for March 28 at Veterans Memorial Park.