10/19/2025

The No Kings Protest, Part 2
A DEMONSTRATION OF DEMOCRACY & KINDNESS 
Locally, A Helping Hand. Nationally, A Street Party

THE RHODE ISLAND STATE HOUSE

The State House steps.

I GOT TO THE NO KINGS RALLY EARLY, and everything was going swimmingly until I reached the cascade of marble steps leading down from the  State House to the plaza below, where the protest was forming.
     The Rhode Island Capitol is an elegant structure, fitting for a tiny state that has an oversupply of visual wonders, including its rugged coast and more than a few Colonial-era homes.
     My problem was that the sea of marble steps below me came without handrails. As I’ve entered my 80s, I have found it difficult, and lately, impossible, to navigate downward stairs without something to hold onto.
      At first, I seemed to be doing okay; one foot, both feet; one foot,  then the other. But I began to feel dizzy; the family member I’d come with was too far ahead for me to signal; and I wondered if this little section of public marble was suddenly about to become a personal puddle of blood and skull.
     “May I help you?” asked a woman somewhere below me. “I have balance problems sometimes, too.”
      “Well, actually, that would be nice,” I said.
      The woman bounded up the five or six steps between us, locked one of her arms firmly onto one of mine – I’m pretty sure she’d had done this before – and led me to the safety of ground zero.
      I didn’t see her again as the crowd swelled into the many thousands – 15,000 is a common estimate of the Providence gathering – but her rescue perfectly captured the spirit of the afternoon.
      She saw someone in trouble. She acted. And did so in the nicest possible way, which is to say she was both kind and competent.
      Which is what it will take to reverse the terrifying, dizzying course that Donald Trump is laying out for the country.
      My theory is that we cannot – nor should we – try to match his brand of cruelty with a version of our own guile. Instead, we must trust our  resources of kindness, compassion and caring to sustain our communities and our country.
      If we are to win back our democracy, we must not become a more successful copy of Donald Trump, we must champion a better alternative. Or, why does it matter?
     And secondly, we must be skilled and proficient in our democratic undertaking. We must master the mechanics of politics, understand the levers of power and perfect the arts of communication.

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 YESTERDAY’S SECOND NO KINGS DAY protest in Rhode Island was both civilized and practical, and, from what I’ve seen and read, the same could have been said for demonstrations throughout the country.
     The Providence protest had a serene, comfortable, at-home feel. Sure, anger and fear drove people to concoct colorful signs, dress up as inflatable creatures, write clever slogans. But they did all of this in a way that made you happy to be among friends, neighbors at a barn-raising, volunteers cleaning up after the flood.
     But numbers absolutely count. It was good that people turned out by the thousands in my state, and by the millions across the nation. The battle for democracy depends on numbers. It’s not enough for one or two of us to vote; what matters is how many millions vote and do so in enough numbers to win.
 
WHY WAS THIS PROTEST SO SUCCESSFUL? On a practical level, at least in our New England neck of the woods, the weather couldn’t have been nicer for mid-October. Temperatures in the 60s, just a whisper of wind, deliciously blue skies. It put you in a mood.
     Further, participants were determined to be peaceful, glad to show how that’s done. And none of this was an accident or unique.
      A relative lives outside Philadelphia, and he wrote me this in an email:

I spent a joyful hour and a half at a No Kings rally near me. It was one of those side of the road with lots of signs and a bit of chanting things, and it made me grin the entire time. (No speakers.) People honked when they went by. OK, there was one pickup truck that said Support ICE, and they were laughing, and someone ran by brandishing a Trump flag. But it was a chill experience. When I left the throng of thousands, I drove along the route, honking my horn. And I ran into several people from our church, and a lot of others were planning to go to a different neighborhood one. 

     In its countrywide wrap up, the Associated Press described the mood nationally  as that of a street fair: 

 Trump’s Republican Party disparaged the demonstrations as  "Hate America" rallies. But in many places the events looked more like a street party. There were marching bands, huge banners with the U.S. Constitution’s “We The People” preamble that people could sign, and demonstrators wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance in Portland, Oregon.

     The Rhode Island edition featured a “march,” from the State House down a slight bill to the Providence City Hall, then back for speeches.
      A friend, who helped organize the event, said there was one unpleasant mini-clash, with a group trying stir emotions over transsexual rights. She described it this way:

 The only sour note came as people were leaving — RI Turning Point, the Charlie Kirk org, set up tables on Francis Street across from the mall to hold a “debate” on why trans women shouldn’t be able to compete in women’s sports. About 20 very offended trans activists began screaming and yelling at them, despite our best attempts to de-escalate. They weren’t having it. The police, who are so roundly denounced by some, were fabulous. They just stood calmly between the groups and waited for it to die down.

IN THE AFTERMATH, the worrywarts, the scolds and the Monday Morning crabby coaches will say that big, peaceful, block party protests aren’t enough to back down the ICE agents and other storm-troopers-in-training, or to counter a Republican Congress that won’t do its Constitutional duty in restraining the president, or to scare a criminal president into going straight.
      Of course, that’s all true. It will take more than a protest in June and another in October to turn the country around. But yesterday’s demonstration was a solid step forward and one to be cheered and celebrated. Just think if there were no mass demonstrations, no protests, no rallies. What would the worrywarts and the scolds be saying then?
      What took place this weekend was both joyous and profound.
     Personally, it was a moment to be cherished, when a stranger acted like a friend and offered me her helping hand, maybe one that was lifesaving.