At key moments in his heroic and historic journey, such as at the heart of the Freedom Rides that changed America, John Lewis was confronted by some who wanted him to tone it down. They worried that the high visibility of the confrontations was too much.
Too risky. Too aggressive.
Too much.
Here was Lewis’s response:
“To me, the matter was simple. We had gotten this far by dramatizing the issue of segregation, by putting it on stage and keeping it on stage. I believed firmly that we needed to push and push and not stop pushing….I believed in action…Dr. King said early on that there is no noise as powerful as the sound of marching feet of a determined people, and I believed that. I experienced it.” (quoted in Raymond Arsenault, John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community).
It’s in the spirit of that quote that, this week, I name as my Patriots of the Week those activists who have been leading the growing protest movement we are seeing in cities—and every state, apparently—across the country.
Like the town hall meetings that have garnered so much attention, these protests are having the same effect. Hundreds and/or thousands are showing up—so much so, those trying to tear our democracy apart are also taking notice.
I was honored to speak at one such protest this past Tuesday, which took place outside Cincinnati City Hall. And to highlight the folks who are putting these together—no, they are not “paid” by anyone—I decided to talk to the woman who organized the one I attended and had reached out to ask me to speak. (We met once at a book festival and she found my email from that):
Her name is Valerie, and she’s a nurse who lives in Greater Cincinnati. And here’s what she told me about getting involved.
“I have never organized or led a protest. I’ve attended just a few. I went to the Women’s March in 2017. But I’m not a community organizer or anything like that. I’ve never organized a protest…”
“After Trump won, it became evident to me that the warnings about our democracy backsliding to autocracy, oligarchy and other things are coming true. I saw with my own eyes these things are happening in real time….”
“My grandmother—Alice—grew up in Warsaw. She was Jewish. She left Warsaw in 1938, and was fortunate enough to have gotten out. But half of her family stayed in Warsaw and died at Treblinka. My whole life, I have been thinking about that. And thinking: ‘if I were in that situation, what would I do?’
My grandmother was always most disappointed by her Polish friends and neighbors who did nothing. I don’t want to be a person who did nothing.”
Valerie explained that in the first few weeks of the new administration, she went online and “signed up to be part of every organization that I could, to see what would stick.”
She attended her first protest in Columbus in mid-February.
“It was a really good experience because at the time, I was feeling helpless, isolated, and alone in our worry and fear and despair. Afterward, we felt more hopeful and more connected. We could be a part of something.”
Like Lewis, Valerie believes in the importance of visible protests:
“I’ve been reading things from people who study autocracy and democracy backsliding. And they are saying that it matters that people get out in the streets. I believe them.
I believe that crowds have an impact…
I know there are other countries that have successfully used peaceful demonstrations to reverse the direction they were going in.”
She described stepping up: “They didn’t have anybody to do the protest on the 4th so I just said, I’ll do it. I just jumped in because they didn’t have anyone.”
In only a few weeks, working with other groups, the crowd ultimately grew to 200-300 people.
On why the hard work matters:
“Courage is contagious. When people see other people on the streets they feel braver to take action themselves.
I have met people for whom this was their first time protesting. They saw it was peaceful, a connection, a community and felt great afterward.
It provides places to connect with another. You come to know other people in the community who care and want to do something.
It shows elected leaders that people care. Puts pressure on elected leaders
It shows bystanders this is not business as usual. We are on the brink of losing our democracy.”
On those trying to dismantle the Constitution:
“They will need the consent and buy-in of the American people. If we don’t consent and show that it is not acceptable, then they will not be successful.”
On the future:
“I want to build bigger coalitions with community leaders and community organizers—an umbrella to be all-inclusive for anyone who wants to join a community and take action against the backsliding of our democracy.
We want everybody to be included and welcome.
We want to build bigger and bigger coalitions so it can be a unified movement.
There’s already a powerful movement in multiple cities in every state of the US.”
From what I saw this week, Valerie and her fellow organizers are off to an incredibly start!
Thank you for stepping up and doing so.
Your courage is indeed contagious!
Day 96 — March 6, 2025
For many of the first 96 days, the story was about what outrageous executive order Trump signed.
The story here is about the planned executive order that Trump did not sign.
All week, it was clear the plan was for Thursday to be the day Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education. The draft had even been circulated to the media.
Even the wording was leaked: that the new Secretary of Education should “take all necessary measures to facilitate the closure of the Education Department.”
But then word came out in the middle of the day—no order was coming.
Trump’s press secretary said that it had been “fake news” that there ever was such an order—but her statement was the real fake news.
Apparently, what actually happened is that Trump and the administration are feeling the heat. According to ABC News, “[b]ehind the scenes, there was concern among top administration officials about the blowback the order would receive and the lack of messaging in place ahead of the rollout.”
Now, given the billionaire zeal to privatize schools and Trump’s long-time promise to destroy the Department, I’d be stunned if he doesn’t ultimately push an order forward.
But even the fact that he got cold feet tells us something. This is another deeply unpopular right-wing idea. They are sensing that.
Which means….go on offense on public education. It’s a winning issue.
On a far darker front, Trump did sign an order yesterday targeting the Perkins Couie law firm, clearly attempting to destroy the firm (including saying it should not have access to federal buildings, attacking its hiring practices, etc) and chill any clients from working with it.
For those who don’t know the firm, it is one of the leading firms that represents Democratic candidates, Democratic Party interests, voting rights interests, and the like. And in doing so, the firm wins a lot of cases.
To put it mildly, singling out a law firm and lawyers because they successfully represent those you consider your opposition is a very dark step on the road toward autocracy.
Very dangerous territory:
Share this post