While Donald Trump is preparing for a $45 million military parade in our nation's capital to celebrate his 79th birthday with a drone-blasting extravaganza, a completely different kind of party is happening all across America a party not of fireworks and tanks but of people, purpose, and protest.
Saturday, June 14, as more than 6,600 troops and 28 Abrams tanks rumble through the capital in displays of military might to mark the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, close to 2,000 protests are planned across every state, as part of what organizers have dubbed "No King Day."
Organized by the 50501 Movement, Indivisible, the ACLU, and a vast coalition of labor and environmental groups, the protests are expected to bring millions to the streets not to celebrate but to resist.
Check out this Article.
"They have ignored our courts, deported U.S. citizens, disappeared people from the streets, attacked our civil rights and our civil liberties, and destroyed our services," organizers said in a joint statement. "The corruption has gone too far. No throne, No crowns, No kings."
While Trump will take center stage in Washington with fireworks lighting up the sky at 9:45 p.m., there will be no public displays in the capital. Why? The city was more sealed off than ever. Eighteen miles of fencing, 175 metal detectors, surveillance drones, and the watchful eyes of the Secret Service, the FBI, and local police will keep D.C. protest-free, but the rest of the country?
The biggest protests will be in Philadelphia, with organizers aiming to make the City of Brotherly Love a hotbed of civil unrest. Other cities will host marches, teach-ins, and community meetups over the next four years to oppose Trump and inform, motivate, and organize people on issues like immigration, voting rights, and climate justice.
Every protest is local in origin, molded by the needs and values of the people in the community. Some will center around the recent ICE raids and immigration policy. Others will shine spotlights on federal crackdowns on dissent or climate inaction. The decentralized arrangement enables a highly personal and focused type of protest, which is the idea.
Critics of Trump's leadership say the use of military spectacle, particularly on his birthday, smacks of authoritarianism, and many detect a symbolic coronation, if not an actual one, lurking amid the camouflage and pageantry.
"He's kinging it," said one protester in an online forum. This country does not belong to kings but to us."
As tanks rumble down the National Mall and jets scream overhead, millions will be standing up and speaking out to remind our nation what democracy is all about.
0 Comments