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.
What a moving blog! Brene Brown says, “It’s not about winning, it’s not about losing, it’s about showing up and being seen.” No Kings was a living witness to showing up, not giving up. Seven million people were seen. “We the people” were heard. It was about transcending despair and saying we can do better. It says democracy, not tyranny, will have the final say, that the light of freedom is stronger than the dark Trump train. Despite our present outrage and the lawless messiness of the moment, let us remember the chant that many of us heard that day at No Kings: “This is what democracy looks like!”
“I’m just so happy to be standing here with my people.” Gave me warm shivers!
Yup. As much as I detest the over the top plans for a gilded ballroom such as those he may have already in his residences else where, I can say that standing on my street corner in upstate NY with what seemed like half the church and hamlet in attendance “This is what democracy looks like”.
GOP has totally overplayed their hand and they’re going to get a serious reality check. Cuts to SNAP benefits, farmers totally bankrupted, health care premiums about to go through the roof…There are about to be a lot of red hats thrown on the fire. It’s going to get worse. They’re gonna need to send the national guard to “red” cities to stop the unrest from their own voters.
*I would never advocate sending in troops against we the people like these tyrants are so giddy for.
It’s truly unbelievable what he’s doing to our democracy in so many ways! It’s also truly unbelievable how many citizens of this country are allowing it to happen with not even a blink of an eye! If you take away Sunday football they bitch! If you take away their “daily bread”, they bitch! If you take away alcohol on Sunday, they bitch! But if you’re taking away their democracy bit by bit they do nothing! I’m proud of the “No Kings March”, but let’s be honest it means nothing if voters against “No.Kings” don’t turn out to vote in 2028, because there is another “would be KING” , there just waiting for HIS chance! Long live the KING, death to DEMOCRACY!😭😂🥵
Amen!
Sign at demonstration in Berkeley Springs WV…”My only king is Stephen King”
“I’m just so happy to be standing here with my people.” I am with Charlie. A good day is finding needed comfort in shared purpose in lifting up a community and a nation.
I was there, too, standing up against that runaway train with 2,400 others – well 7 million others…& the firehouse of malicious & insane priorities & tactics of this madman & willing minions in Congress & all around make me even more glad to stand & resist! Yay to the Charlies, the Karens, the moms, dads, kids, grandparents & neighbors who stand together. Others have done it before us; ….truth marches on. Glory, Glory, Hallelujah…
Beautiful, Randy. Thank you
I’m a little teary myself just hearing about Charlie. We were just in D.C. to see Aida at The Kennedy Center; the thought of the East Wing of the White House being torn down is just unbelievable – the thought that one maniac can destroy our heritage on a whim – the thought of the White House made into a gold palace for the glory of one crazed man is undigestable. I bought a small book of quotations by John Fitzgerald Kennedy; if you want to read inspiring quotations to counterbalance our current ruling demagogue, Kennedy is a good choice.
Exactly!!! We are becoming a people capable of fighting fascism collectively. Acting collectively is absolutely essential. That means climbing over myths eg myth of the individual, myth of any value in toxic masculinity. Soon our resistance will require real courage. May we steel our spines and fortify our hearts and spirits for righteous struggle.
Because of surgery, I couldn’t be out at a march, but it heartened me to see the crowds around the country. I write and speak to encourage others to participate, however they can, to march and speak for democracy and our Constitution. As for the East Wing, now in rubble, crushed and acting as fill and mounds for a DC golf course, take heart that the ballroom has been named by the people, The Epstein Ballroom. Use the name now and onward so that it stands as a constant reminder of the danger of a corrupt leader and all his sycophants who tear down people and their history to raise up gold and pomp for their projection of power.
Brought tears to my eyes.
Beautiful expressions today, Randy. Charlie’s presence reminded me that living in a democratic form of freedom is also an “inside job,” like happiness. And “showing up” last Saturday was also individual “will” (morphed on German Street as a strengthened collective!), a refusal to be a “passive watcher” but rather an “active witness,” witness to both an insistence on a democratic path forward AND rejection of it’s evil obstruction and destruction by this current administration. Of one thing I’ve no doubt, the Charlies of this nation know unimpeded peace in their hearts. It’s silent, peaceful work/action that becomes the collective Lion’s roar. Let’s be “home” anywhere! Je suis Charlie.
Well said! to all above – our “soapbox” is getting bigger, stronger
I’m a day late and, as usual, a dollar short. That seems my calling in life. And so it goes.
We know that (T)Rump uses outrageous behavior to masked the evil he’s concocting. He doesn’t understand that he’s only a temporary resident in the now, Bleak House—move over Charles Dickens. It is all too much. But Rump counts on we the people getting tired and dispirited. Out job is to keep on getting on and to follow Rasputin’s motto at the end of his life, following being shot, stabbed, drowned, and he still wouldn’t die, “Never say die!” Though this rascal never exactly said that, he might have. Let the opposition and the freedom loving resistance to Rump and his mayhem gang of thieves and authoritarians prove just as tenacious as we continue to oppose and resist this attempted authoritarian makeover of our democratic system. Make Rump pay in 2026. That’s a lot of time for mayhem to work its evil, but we can’t give up now. Onward! Always onward!!
I love THIS! Little by little- l have hope!