A comment to a post I put up earlier asked when the next day of No Kings protests would take place. I replied simply. July 17. However I believe rather more needs to be said to ensure you mark your calendars and make plans to participate. This could be a watershed moment because No Kings will be invoking none other than John Lewis and his ‘Get In Good Trouble. Necessary Trouble’ message as the theme for the next round of protests.
A couple of days ago organizers of Saturday’s No Kings protests held a conference call. The central thing was a version of Robert Redford’s character at the end of The Candidate asked ‘What do we do now?’ Or maybe it would be more accurate to cite The West Wing and the Martin Sheen’s fictional President who, satisfied with completing and important tasks always said “What’s next?” My point is that Trumpty and his WH can claim all they want that No Kings was a ‘failure.’ Even conservatives know the truth. Trump’s event flopped and badly and No Kings was a rousing success. Even in Red states there were big turnouts at No Kings protests!
It’s taken too long since the election but Democrats, Independents and even some concerned conservatives seem to be emerging from their funk. That ‘what’s the point?’ or ‘why even bother anymore?’ attitude. Trump had 75k or so (maybe at most 100k) show up in DC for his birthday party disguised as a celebration of the Army’s 250th birthday. Lame crowd for a lame show. In the rest of the country, over five million people attended over 2000 No Kings protests.
We had good reason to fear early in he week. For all the world (literally) it looked like Trump was counting on provoking folks in LA (and elsewhere) into giving him an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act. After a grand North Korea or Russian style military parade. That was the plan. But for the Reality TV President actual reality whacked him upside the head. Even adding Marines to the unneeded contingent of federalized National Guard troops in LA didn’t provoke a massive riot. By the time the bigly ‘perade’ started Trump knew that despite some small clashes with LE in some places millions of people had shown up all over the country to politically rain on his parade. Even as I said in RED states.
So, given the success of Saturday’s No Kings protests the organizers weren’t the only ones wanting to know how to keep the anti-Trump movement energized. It would take at least a few weeks to organize a new and widespread set of protests. As fate would have it this coming July 17 will mark the fifth anniversary of the passing of the iconic John Lewis. We might (and do) lament he’s not still out there leading. But his voice and vision live on. More importantly he gave us plenty from his life and work including some inspirational messaging to work with.
As USA Today tells us No Kings organizers quickly realized what to do. Set July 17 as the date for the next round of protests and utilize the extraordinary John Lewis’ legacy to get people to notice. When he left us this country got a reminder of how great a person and leader he was. Starting as a young man in college he put it all on the line. On Bloody Sunday many including Lewis knew the hellish fury local and state police would unleash on them. I am old enough to have seen the brief clips on the evening news. Lewis would suffer a fractured skull (others were inured as badly or worse) yet when the march from Selma to Montgomery got federal protection soon after Lewis was right there again at the head of things.
Those images on TV screens changed our country and led to the passage of The Voting Rights Act. Lewis would be the first to say the brutality he and others endured was worth it. And it was brutal (If you click on the link it should take you there – I tried and it played):
Yes, I understand Trump might try harder to use force. However when I was born in the latter 1950s lynchings, church burnings and general terrorizing was going on. It might have been more prevalent in former confederate states but it wasn’t limited to the south. Lewis risked his freedom, physical well-being and even life to expand the rights laid out in our Constitution to all, and not just on Bloody Sunday. Now, Americans who believe in the America we were trying to be prior to Trump owe Lewis and his legacy the same devotion HE showed.
So we have our answer to the question of what’s next or where we go from here. During that call ” Barbara Arnwine with Transformative Justice Coalition made note of Dr. King asking ‘where do we go from here in a speech: “And where we go from here is July the 17th… We’re going to make good trouble because good trouble lives on and we will not stop until we win: no kings, no tyrants, no despots.” So here’s where things stand at the moment:
“Good trouble” is a term coined by the late Congressman John Lewis, and July 17 will mark five years since his death, the movement’s website states.
A map of events shows there are more than 60 demonstrations planned for that day as of June 17.
“Good Trouble Lives On is a national day of action to respond to the attacks on our civil and human rights by the Trump administration,” the website states. “Together, we’ll remind them that in America, the power lies with the people.”
You can count on the fact that when “here” arrives on July 17 a helluva lot more than 60 events will be ready to go. Not even ten times that number will come close. We had over 2000 this past Saturday and it’s my fervent hope we’ll see far more than that next month. I truly believe people are finally getting engaged again. If Saturday wasn’t enough to convince our side there’s plenty more out there that need to get out and make their voices heard, that it CAN in time make a difference I don’t know what will.
I know this. If there IS a heaven John Lewis looked down with approval this past Saturday. It’s easy to imagine him thinking ‘It’s about time we saw people making that kind of Good Trouble on that scale again.’ Yet also thinking it was NECESSARY to create MORE Good Trouble. Well, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Best of all it will be his own legacy that’s invoked that day. Our country will, as it did five years ago get a reminder of what greatness, of worthy political activism looks like and what it can achieve.
Once again, we have the chance to honor a great American and leader. Shame on us all if we fail to meet the moment.
**********************
We thank all of you who have donated. You’re keeping this blog on the internet, believe me. One of the battles we fight is the inconstancy of ad revenue because politics in this country is so polarized and a lot of advertisers just seek to avoid the political. They’d rather advertise on food blogs and be safe, doughnuts before democracy. All we’re trying to do is stay in business because we believe the work is important. Thank you if you can assist. If we didn’t need it, we wouldn’t be asking. Ursula
I’m ready.
IMG_2214