Photos and Headlines from a Historic Weekend
No Kings protests in Guilford, CT and headlines from around the world
I attended the No Kings demonstration in Guilford, CT yesterday, along with what was estimated to be nearly 2,000 - a big increase over prior protests. The Guilford Green was filled with determination and good will, marred only by the sadness we felt when hearing about the murders in Minnesota. A intended moment of silence extended to five minutes of utter shock. Here are photos that I took, plus headlines from a historic weekend. Some of the signs and costumes I saw in Guilford were ingenious. Sarcasm and ridicule are great tools to use when fighting despots, and in a Green filled with Yalies, that’s what one could most certainly expect. We certainly can use a little wit at a time like this.
Here are some of this weekend’s historic headlines, courtesy of Freedom Forum and other sites.
The headline above proclaims, “History!” Picture of a pilot receiving a hug on his way to perform his mission.
Israeli TV graphic of Iranian officials eliminated.
Israeli TV screenshot as the country awaits arrival of the first Iranian barrage, with the public being given instructions. Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are on top of this screenshot. Below, Tel Aviv awaits another barrage.
My phone’s “Red Alert” app lighting up with locations under attack in Israel:
Another view:
Plane disaster in India.
Watching from across the Atlantic- you are all amazing - courage and so much humour. Keep going
From town greens to large city parks, an impressive outpouring.
The Frost-y placard in one photo recalls for me a recent Inaugural crossroads In his second-chance Inaugural nearly five months ago, DJ Trump indulged in one Orwellian cover after another for classics of aspiring rhetoric, including promises to “stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America” and “My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.”
In the months that followed, we have witnessed the degrading of that rhetoric through unprecedented acts of political indecency that included the handcuffing of two members of the House and Senate for speaking out in public. A White House that treats opposing views by elected representatives with physical contempt and lack of contrition is at war not only with diversity but with democracy itself and at least negligently sends a dangerous signal to disturbed minds.
No Kings protests have presented public speech whose delivery is free from physical or lethal violence. In a more secure democracy, opponents to that speech inside and outside government would be equally free from encouraging or engaging in any degree of personal violence. The gap between those two visions of free speech is the civic challenge we face in places of protest and power.