Sat 6/14 @ 2-4PM
On Saturday April 5, ordinary citizens assembled across the country for a series of peaceful “Hands Off” rallies, which warned Republicans in D.C. that Americans were furious about proposals to cut essential services such as Medicaid and food assistance to give the ultrawealthy a bigger tax cut. An unprecedented number of people gathered in an unprecedented number of cities, towns and villages to amplify the message — and many were not your usual activists, just concerned ordinary people. Thousands gathered in Cleveland on the corner of West 25th and Lorain, across from the West Side Market.
Shortly after that, national advocacy group Indivisible began working with other pro-democracy groups to stage another nationwide series of peaceful rallies/demonstrations on Saturday June 14, which is also Flag Day. The NO KINGS Nationwide Day of Defiance is intended to remind our leaders that they are elected to serve US and are constitutionally required to do so, and that we declared our independence from monarchy 250 years ago.
That’s something our current administration is defying more and more each day, with an escalation in unconstitutional attacks on its own people this past weekend in Los Angeles. That includes frighteningly un-American and unlawful developments such as threatening to arrest the governor of California for pushing back against federal seizure of law enforcement based on lies about small, mostly peaceful, constitutionally protected demonstrations.
In Washington, D.C. the would-be king is making a military parade celebrating the country’s the 250th anniversary all about himself, his birthday and his imagined glory. But in Cleveland and Parma and Chardon and Bainbridge and Mentor, in Ashtabula and Lorain counties, and hundreds of other locations across the U.S., people will be standing up to remind him that it’s not about him at all.
The organizers stress that they are NOT holding a Washington, D.C. event to deprive the would-be king of additional attention saying that he wants a “made-for-TV display of dominance for his birthday. A spectacle meant to look like strength. But real power isn’t staged in Washington. It rises up everywhere else. Instead of allowing this birthday parade to be the center of gravity, we will make action everywhere else the story of America that day: people coming together in communities across the country to reject strongman politics and corruption.”
So NO KINGS will hold its flagship march in Philadelphia, the birthplace of American democracy. It’s advising Washington, D.C. residents to attend one of the many events in Maryland or Virginia or attend DJ Joy Day in Anacostia Park where there’ll be teach-ins, line dancing and face painting — artful designs, not slathering faces with orange goo.
In Cleveland the big rally will take place at Willard Park, the location of the Free Stamp, along with demonstrations around the region. In a reminder of our country’s complex historical crosscurrents, that’s just over a block from Mall C where the Juneteenth Freedom Fest—marking the day in 1865 when the last slaves were freed—is happening. It’s a golden opportunity to celebrate both, and a reminder that freedom doesn’t defend itself. (Also, there’s a Soul Food Village at the Freedom Fest and you may need fuel.)
If you’d rather not rally peacefully downtown, you can find info about all those outlying rallies here.
“This country doesn’t belong to a king and we’re not letting him throw himself a parade funded by tens of millions of our taxpayer dollars while stealing from us and stripping away our rights, our freedoms, and the programs our families rely on,” say the organizers. “On June 14th, we’re coming together to send one clear message: No Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings.”