No Kings Day

There was an article in the paper this morning about several veterans who had chosen to hang their flags upside down. It is only to be used this way as a sign of distress and these men all agreed that our country is in distress and they did not believe that it was disrespectful to display the flag this way.

There were all kinds of flags on display in Santa Rosa today...American flags some upside down and many not, pride flags, Mexican flags even a Canadian flag. And of course there were the signs...Make America Think Again .Immigrants Make America Great. No Fear No Hate, No ICE in our State. Stop Trump's War on America. No Human Is Illegal. Immigrants Are Not Criminals But Trump is a Felon. AWe had to walk quite a way through a neighborhood from where we parked the car. One house had a table with bottles of water on it and a sign that said something like, 'if you are attending the protest take some water.'

The newspaper said the protest would take place the length of Farmers Lane,  a distance of about a mile. Traffic would still flow on the street and protesters would gather along the sidewalks on either side. As it turned out, there was a large contingent of marchers that marched up and down the street following a car with a Mexican flag. Volunteers stopped traffic at the intersections as the group passed. Anybody who wanted to join them could,  many many others moved up and down the sidewalks or just camped out by the side of the road. Once the marchers passed, cars were allowed on the street. The majority of them were people waving flags and signs, honking their horns and joining in. Volunteers directed traffic and helped a few people who just wanted to get out of there to do so. There was a police car and a fire engine on the road, not to mention a cement truck and several other unconventional vehicles clearly there to join in. It was loud and peaceful and very well organized. 

We chose to walk up and down the sidewalk on Farmers Lane which runs next to the Montgomery Village shopping center. I had heard that many of these protests have been attended mainly by people with white hair, but I saw young people, old people, people in mobility scooters wheelchairs, or with walkers, children in strollers, veterans, gay people, trans people, HIspanic and Black people, Native American people, people in cars, on motorbikes or bicycles.

 We walked through the shopping center  to get back to the car and it was virtually deserted. On the way home, in front of a retirement home near our house there was a contingent of its residents, many seated in chairs  waving signs and flags . Perhaps they weren't able to get to the main event, but they still wanted to participate. It felt like the whole town had turned out to make it clear that we are fed up with our democracy and the rule of law that supports it being trampled on by a bunch of  rich, yet still greedy, oligarchs/thugs.

It was not an accident that this and similar demonstrations in towns and cities across the nation were timed to coincide with the military parade which was supposed to honor the 250th anniversary of the US Army, but was co-opted by Trump because it just happens to be his birthday too. He is a weak man with an unquenchable thirst for power and adulation. A significant portion of the country wasn't watching., even though we paid a significant part of the estimated $45 million tab. Many signs pointed out the money could have been a lot better spent on health care for the disabled and the poor. I think health care is a human right.

I take America seriously. I guess I just don't understand how Americans can get up in the morning and think about their pocketbook and nor morality and democracy. It just kills me.
--Tom Schissler, US Marine Corps veteran who chose to display the American flag that draped the casket of his father, also a veteran, upside down.