Reverse Christmas
No Kings Day
First, WOOOOOOOOOOOO!
June 14th was the day I will forever call Reverse Christmas.
You know how you get into the joy of the Christmas season—the festive music, the decorations, the gaudy lights? You almost don’t care about the commercialization, at least not while you’re shopping for the most thoughtful gifts you can afford. You’re all abuzz. Then, you open those gifts, thank everyone, even through your disappointment, and poof! It’s over.
If you’re like me, you’re ready to chuck that tree out the door and sweep up the pine needles and the tacky tinsel your husband threw on your tasteful tree when you weren’t looking.
By Christmas afternoon, I’m afflicted with the blahs. All that hype, and then it’s over without much fanfare.
But a reverse Christmas means you work and work and work toward a specific moment, and when that moment happens, it’s sofa-king joyful that you’re high for days after.
I’m talking about No Kings Day. On June 14, Indivisible and other national resistance groups came together in at least 2,100 locations nationwide to say we have NO KINGS IN AMERICA. An official Alt National Parks estimate of attendance was 12.1 million people (though other official numbers come in at over 11 million).
By comparison, Mr. Drumpf’s $45 million military parade had more participants than attendees. And there was plenty of room in the inns in DC. Hotels were nowhere near full and were still reasonably priced.
It’s sad when you throw yourself a birthday party and no one comes. No wonder Prez Poopypants looked so disconsolate. And the people he bosses around sat there yawning through the whole thing. The New Republic called it “pathetic.”
Meanwhile, at No Kings events, we were singing. We were chanting. We cheered, laughed, celebrated, marched, and felt better than the Whos down in Whoville (who liked Christmas a lot). It stoked our hope and further fueled our resistance efforts.
Political commentators (the legit ones like Scott Dworkin, Jess Craven, Robert Hubbell, Robert Reich, Heather Cox Richardson, Rebecca Solnit, and more) have said that this event, which was bigger than the Hands Off rallies in April, is just the start.
Noted political scientist Erica Chenoweth talks about the “3.5 percent rule.” It is “the notion that no government can withstand a challenge of 3.5% of its population without either accommodating the movement or (in extreme cases) disintegrating.”
America has 340.1 million people. If 12.1 million people attended a No Kings rally, this means just over 3.5 percent of us engaged in nonviolent protest.
We will be accommodated. We will defeat this regime. But we must show up again and again and again. I think we will.
As for our little party at Patterson Park, volunteers from Indivisible Baltimore, myself included, pulled off an amazing show. It ran so smoothly that it seemed to work like real anarchy: we all knew the rules and followed them with little oversight. People even picked up their trash! Indivisible’s volunteer clean-up crews were stunned to find they had very little work to do! (In contrast, look at Stephen Miller, who, in high school, made a speech about being “sick and tired of being told to pick up my own trash when we have plenty of janitors who are paid to do it for us.”)
Highlights include Senator Chris Van Hollen, who was so moved by our hero’s welcome—a long standing ovation during his introduction—that we could see him choking up and wiping his tears. Seeing him a few feet away telling us how important we are was a feel-good moment.
Grammy-Award winner Dan (The Del Fuegos) and Claudia Zanes (jazz singer) pulled out all the audience participation stops. This was my favorite. Keep watching to the end!
Every so often, my family and friends would turn around and look at the crowd, shocked by the awesome growing presence.
Revvnant played three protest songs; Buzz Merrick, local protest singer, performed with his No Kings Trio; and my own Utah Miller performed a few popular songs and their own “Everything’s Fine.” They nailed it. (I even read a poem, non-bravely while the marchers were on their 1.25-mile parade route and a smattering of people remained on the lawn.)
Other speakers included Zeke Cohen, Odette Ramos, and Charlotte Clymer.
Because Trump lost orange face as his parade fizzled, with military marchers deliberately fucking up their step, he declared war on LA, Chicago, New York, and, by sanctuary-city designation of his own making, Baltimore.
But, as Odette Ramos and Zeke Cohen both said in their speeches, Baltimore is a tough city, and we will stand up against the regime.
Great recap--and great work by you and Indivisible! (Loved your line about Stephen Miller.) Let's keep it going!
What a wonderful read. Thank you!