Peaceful Americans

After Trump was elected in 2016, I waited for him to pivot from being a candidate to being president. I didn’t like him, but he was now my president. Instead, Trump kept holding campaign rallies. And calling those who didn’t vote for him “them.” I realized he didn’t want to be the president of America. He wanted to be president of people who elected him. Now Mike Johnson–the speaker of the house from my state–insults peaceful Americans, calling me an America-hating terrorist for choosing to exercise my First Amendment rights.

No Kings Rally

Yesterday, I rallied in Mississippi with Navy vets and Civil Rights veterans. With a daughter riding her dad’s shoulders. With a T-Rex, a turkey, squid, and unicorn. I teared up at a Gospel singer, admired a Palestinian American, and covered my face at an immigrant mother describing the impact of violence on her kids and their friends, who don’t understand what’s happening. For two hours, I stood on concrete to hear people express their opinions, and while I’d rather have been lining the street with my sign raised, in retrospect, I did my bit for the First Amendment. People said things I didn’t agree with, and that’s the point.

We did see some semi-terrorist action when, early on, hateful Christians pushed through the group. I say hateful because these heirs of the Crusaders gave off palpable hate, their faces contorted. That’s why they blared that we were all going to hell–they wanted us to go to hell. No “hate the sin, love the sinner” here.

Before the march, people I loved expressed worry about what would happen. Firehoses. Staged conflict to justify arrests. In preparation, I watched the de-escalation videos. I chose glasses over contacts to account for teargas. Instead, I was an old white woman with even older white women and preppy middle aged white guys and young Black women and creative sign-carriers and flag wavers, flag wavers, flag wavers galore.

Peaceful Americans

From what I’ve read, marches across the country were incredibly peaceful. According to USAToday, in the largest civil action since the first Earth Day 55 years ago, police reported no major incidents or arrests. Some folks might not want to hear it, but that peace isn’t credited solely to the organizers and protesters. The police and counter-protestors choose peace too. In our rally, only the hateful Christians breached the peace. Them, and Mike Johnson’s smear campaign. Perhaps one day even they will choose to be peaceful Americans.

You can read more here at CNN’s most read article of the morning about the concerns that motivated people to rally in protest.