No Kings Protest
Reporting from Toledo, Ohio
Because family is important to us, hubby Rick and I flew back to the US a few days ago from Spain to attend the 100th birthday party of Rick’s aunt Peggy. She lives in Toledo, Ohio and is the younger sister of my husband’s father.
I had not intended to go to one of the two thousand No Kings Day planned protests while here. However one of the daughters of Rick’s cousin said she wanted to attend but was anxious about going alone. So I offered to go with her and then her sister immediately piped up and said she was going with us too. So the three of us attended the No Kings Day protest together in downtown Toledo, Ohio.
For my readers who aren’t American, Ohio is a “red state,” meaning the majority of its voters typically vote Republican in their elections. So residents would be more likely to have voted for Trump than for Kamala Harris in the November 2024 Presidential election.
As a result, I wasn’t sure there would be a lot of local residents attending. However, once we got to the protest venue at Promenade Park, it looked to me like there were a few thousand people.
Here are some of the signs we saw. I like the simplicity and alliteration of this first one and agree with the others I am posting here.
We got up close to the speakers’ tent and heard at least six people speak against Trump and his policies, including a college professor, two local politicians, a gay man, a transgender woman and a Black woman who spoke with great passion.
I don’t remember everything that was said but the general theme was people talking about the harm the Trump administration’s policies were doing to the United States.
The last speaker talked about the three branches of government and how the government wasn’t working as designed by our founders. He mentioned that the legislative branch had been neutered as most Republicans weren’t standing up to Trump but were cowed by fear (of being opposed by someone even more conservative when they ran for re-election again, undoubtedly.) I would say the judicial branch has been trying to hold Trump and the executive branch accountable but he mostly has been ignoring or appealing any rulings that limit his power.
I could tell you a hundred reasons why I oppose Trump and his policies but I will just quote from a post he send yesterday to help you understand why I and millions of other Americans so vehemently oppose him.
He says “Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities.” Now I ask you, Is this anyway to talk about Democrats? Is this language presidential in any way? Will this ramped-up hate bring our country together or just inflame people to kill Democrats, as happened in Minnesota on Saturday when a Trump supporter murdered Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark in their home? His language about Democrats will only get more people killed!
As the first poster I shared with you said, we need “humanity over hate” right now and Trump is instead promoting more hate, more division and more violence. It’s time to do everything we possibly can to oppose him without violence.
Please consider becoming a paid subscriber for $50 a year or just $5 a month. This helps sustain my work and gives you both full access to the comment sections and to all my previous posts. Building our community has never been more important!
Good for you for attending. The posters are perfect. I love the chihuahua one too.