No Kings Protests
Saturday, June 14 was indeed a banner day in America. It was Flag Day, a day that commemorates the adoption of the official flag of the United States by the Continental Congress in 1777. Many communities celebrate it each June with parades, but this Flag Day will now be remembered for another reason.
On June 14. 2025 ordinary citizens from around the country gathered at over 2,000 locations to peacefully protest the actions of the administration’s authoritarian policies, including the president’s deployment of 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles in response to anti-immigration enforcement protests that began June 6 following a series of ICE raids at a Home Depot.
On the same day as ‘No Kings’ protests were being held nationwide on Flag Day, a full military parade took place in Washington, D. C.—with 6,700 troops, 28 tanks and 50 military aircraft. The event meant to celebrate the U. S. Army’s 250th birthday took place the same day as Donald Trump’s 79th birthday. According to Newsweek, the parade cost $45 million in taxpayer money, including $16 million in road repairs for Washington, D.C., as the city’s roads are not built to hold tanks.
Organizers of the nationwide protests said on the ‘No Kings’ website: “On June 14—Flag Day—Donald Trump wants tanks in the street and 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 everywhere else. Instead of allowing this birthday parade be the center of gravity, we will make action everywhere else the story of America that day: people coming together across the country to reject strongman politics and corruption.”
Organizers called for people to attend demonstrations being held across the country or to organize their own events. In Grass Valley, CA, between 3,500 and 4,000 Americans of every color, stripe and background showed up to protest the anti-democratic policies of the current administration and to defend the Constitution. I was enormously proud to be there with them that day. Good for us. Good for America. Onward we go for as long as it takes.