Thousands of people took to the streets in several South King County cities Oct. 18 to protest the policies of the Trump Administration.
The “No Kings” rallies saw locals join the nationwide, sign-bearing, by-the-side-of-the-street protests to express their disagreement with what they consider the emerging authoritarianism of the federal government.
This matters.
That we, the people, can still flex the freedom of speech muscle in this way demonstrates the enduring strength of one of our most cherished — and by world standards — unusual institutions: freedom of speech. It’s no accident that our founders wrote it into the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
What the First Amendment gives us is the right to call our leaders fools, jerks, even turds — okay not those specific words —and other juicier names without fear of government retribution. Here, we have the right to seek redress of grievances as long as we don’t call for violence or turn violent.
It’s important to note out at this juncture, however, that peaceful protests have not always been the rule in American history. Indeed, before there was a Constitution, we began with a protest, as men dumped boxes of tea into Boston Harbor to protest Great Britain’s high tax on the commodity.
In his speech on July 4, 1863, Democratic New York Governor Horatio Seymour certainly demonstrated the unconstitutional way to say “hell no.”
“Remember this,” Seymour said, on the eve of what is now known as the New York City draft riots, “that the bloody and treasonable and revolutionary doctrine of public necessity can be proclaimed by a mob as well as by a government.”
Ostensibly a protest against the Civil War draft, which allowed men with enough money to pay a sum to get out of war service, disagreement turned into something else: three days of roaming mobs looting and burning city blocks and slaughtering of innocents, including the hanging and torching of Black people just for being Black.
I wasn’t able to cover the latest No Kings events, but if accounts of the protests are accurate, there were few, if any calls for violence, throughout the nation.
So, how did the object of the protests react? With all the arrogance of entrenched power that believes it can do anything it wants without consequence, and dismisses all who disagree with what it’s doing as “nothings.”
“Who cares?” a White House spokesperson said, before going on to malign all protesters as communists, or, without one miserable shred of evidence to back up its claims, as terrorist agents of Antifa, Hamas and Al-Qaida.
Well, the administration should care. According to news accounts, millions of its citizens, whom it is supposed to listen to and protect, said “no.”
But here’s what the Trump Administration appears not to understand: sometimes opposition, not servile knee bending and yes-menning, is true patriotism.
Robert Whale can be reached at robert.whale@soundpublishing.com.
Talk to us
Please share your story tips by emailing editor@kentreporter.com.
To share your opinion for publication, submit a letter through our website https://www.kentreporter.com/submit-letter/. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) Please keep letters to 300 words or less.
