No Kings

No Kings. Would have thought that whole Revolutionary War thing would have made that clear. Saturday, while our wannabe autocrat was having his vanity birthday parade, the country was taking to the streets to remind anyone who'd forgotten that.

Louisville was no exception, with thousands converging on Injustice Square Park and Metro Hall to protest and march. The New York Times may not be able to confirm that a protest took place but I can confirm that there was a veritable sea of people in the streets here.

Haven't seen this many people in the streets since Breonna Taylor's birthday in June of 2020. In the run up to Saturday, local media had been running breathless 'Oh no! What is going to happen?!?' stories, but all that happened was the people having their say.

Organized by 50501, Black Lives Matter, and a host of other organizations, folks from all walks of life took to the streets Saturday. Time and again I heard someone say that this was their first protest.

Seems a certain President Dick Tater can order up a military parade at taxpayer expense but can't order up a crowd. Guess everyone was too busy saying no to kings to make it. Judging by the number of veterans in the crowd, they were even less thrilled with the mockery he's making of their service.

Plenty of veterans of the Breonna Taylor protests were in attendance as well. In many ways Saturday felt like a continuance of that struggle.

When the speeches were finished it was time to take to the streets. With the news of the assassinations in Minnesota coming just hours before the start of the demonstration, it was heartening to see this many people out in the streets.

If anything, the assassin's hit list full of Democrats made the crowd even more defiant.

The march made its way through downtown Louisville before circling back to the square. Was unlike any I'd participated in back in 2020, I was at the head of the march when it made it back to the square, fifteen minutes later we were still waiting for the tail end to come into sight.

As large as the crowds were Saturday, it felt like this was only the beginning of something larger. That this these demonstrations will, in the words of Travis Nagdy (pictured with megaphone on the t-shirt), Keep Going!