No Kings Day, October 18, 2025

 I descend into depression as I try to keep up 

with the news and commentary upon it. 

“What has he done today?”

Each day descends into deeper insanity 

as the president dismantles the only government I have known.

The day of protest arrives. The sky is blue. The air is cool.

I discover that thousands, perhaps millions of others feel as I do.

There is anger. 

Signs are pointed and serious. 

The sound of car horns, shouts, drums, and trumpets pierce the air.

Laughter interrupts or defines the day

in the form of inflatable frogs, dinosaurs and cartoon characters.

People line the sidewalks on both sides of the street as far as I can see.

We tell each other “This is what democracy looks like!”

It is peace, but later walking to a place for speeches, 

I see a cop with a three foot hickory riot baton.

(The state police carried them when I protested 

the war in Vietnam when I was in college.)

I told the officer, “You won’t be needing that here today.” 

The first speaker reminded us that the president wasn’t the problem

but a symptom of many larger problems with a long history.

What we want, he said, is new structures 

that will make those problems obsolete.

We need to say no not only to kings, 

but to corporations in which we have no say

and to billionaires who have no interest in ours.

Yes. 

This revolution is in our minds and hearts already.

Is a movement enough to effect it, or will it require a war?

Need I say that property is involved?