It’s hard to stop a train. But it’s not impossible. One person standing alone against it doesn’t have a chance. A hundred or even a thousand don’t either. But seven million might.
We are loud. We are strong. We are organized.
We are unflappable.
Or so I thought on Saturday, October 18.
The next day I saw a friend who had joyously shouted, chanted, and cheered at Shepherdstown’s No Kings protest with me and two thousand others. She looked glum.
Did you know that while we were protesting, waving signs, and chanting slogans, he was tearing down the East Wing of the White House to make room for his new ballroom?
Yeah, I heard that.
Well, dammit, he’s a president! Not a king! The president lives in the People’s House. Now he wants the People’s House to be a palace with a ballroom 12 times the size of the ballroom in Buckingham Palace!
That’s shocking.
Yes, it is. Did he ask permission?
No, I don’t think so.
He definitely did not! What king has ever asked permission for anything? If you’re floating in a fishing boat in the Caribbean he just might blow you out of the water without permission.
My friend was pissed.
It’s hard to stop a madman who has loosed the lightning of his terrible swift sword. Not even 340 million of us can stop him from mutilating the “People’s House.”
I didn’t want to go to the No Kings protest. Political demonstrations aren’t my thing. But I went. Feelings are one thing. Duty is another.
One body doesn’t make much of a difference, but if every body stayed away there’d be no witness, no movement, no resistance. No chance.
I was standing with a thousand others when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked back and saw Charlie.
Charlie!
We don’t see Charlie much. He’s a recluse. Lives in a small trailer on the outskirts of town with a few chickens, a goat, and a parrot.
Hey, Charlie. Great to see you.
Likewise.
I noticed tears on his face.
Are you okay?
Yes. Yes, I am. I’m just so happy to be standing here with my people.
There are 148 million houses in our country. The White House is only one. The heart of democracy does not reside in one place. It resides in a million places, including a trailer on the outskirts of Shepherdstown.
