Making Art, being creative, in its endless forms offers an avenue for political activism and very needed right now.
This beautiful TED talk by Amie McNee called “The case for making art when the world is on fire” made that present for me and this includes “artists and non-artists” so, everyone.
I suggest that our self expression in all its myriad forms is art and that self expression arrises as we more and more feel a sense of responsibility for our world.
During a Friday interview with MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, New York Times columnist M. Gessen – who authored the book "Surviving Autocracy" — gave a frank assessment of the state of American opposition to the Trump administration. According to Gessen two bright spots in the current American political landscape are the multiple legal defeats Trump has suffered in the federal judiciary and the prevalence of protests. But he observed that neither the courts nor protests alone can put a stop to the administration's actions, and that Americans can be misled into thinking things aren't as bad as they are amidst the busy nature of their day-to-day lives.
To strengthen the resistance, he urges us to create a very inspiring mission statement. He suggests Americans contrast Trump's promise to bring America back to an "imaginary past" and counter it with a clear proposal for a "glorious future," delivered by leaders using the power of the bully pulpit to rally the people. MSN.com May 30, 2025
I learned an important nugget from Gessem: In an autocracy, he said, we feel that our reality is increasingly being constricted and then fail to realize that we have many more opportunities to express resistance than we think. Many Russians, for example, looking 20 years into the past have noticed windows of opportunity to act in which they failed to seize the moment to stop Putin's rise to power. So did the Germans after WWII.
In sum, according to Gessem, we need: 1) a “glorious future” message, and 2) while overcoming our sense of constriction, we need to actively look for the many opportunities to resist that right now are hiding in plain sight of all of us. Makes me think of what I saw in Ecuador where people expressed their discontent by banging on their pots and pans for ½ hour each day at 7 PM. Elsewhere all church bells around the state rang for 15 minutes. Small gestures of resistance, but those too should not be discounted. Other suggestions?
So true Robert — much bigger and more diverse turnout — even on a very rainy day in Patchogue, NY! No MAGA trucks on the street. Our goal is to turn Long Island blue again.
My hubby and I live half week in ATL and half at our rural farm near Chattanooga TN. The area is VERY Red. We opted for a smaller setting to give a voice to lesser known cities and wow the turnout was spectacular! Amazing turnout. Approximately 2,000 people. Peaceful, joy filled and cars driving the 4 corners of the downtown park were in the mood to support the crowd. Only one 🤡 Truck shouting expletives. There were young and the elderly, clergy, queer, immigrants, white, black, brown and Asian.
I was nervous about violence. We came prepared but being older worried about chaos. The organizers were on their game. It was a powerful morning. So proud of the southerners who came together to show we are a force!
We attended a No Kings protest in Highlands, NC, 2020 (the most recent data) population 1,014 year round. Summer triples the population with influxes of retirees.
Hello from San Francisco, where I was park of the No King sign in the sand. It was wonderful! More young people than I’ve seen before, families, old people, and politically-minded dogs stood in formation for an hour for photos. A bunch of new friends got coffee and went to the big march down downtown. Thanks to all of you!
OK, OK we were all great and I am proud of all of us but we now must look forward not backwards. I really think we need something on the calendar ASAP and what better day that the 4th of July. We do it in the morning before the parade and the mandatory barbecue ? I honestly believe it can work. This is an optimistic crowd, so what do you all think? I'm certainly gonna run it up my Indivisible Santa Barbara flag-pole.
I've been going through looking for pics of small town events, and it is fun. You really get a sense of how many people are out there, when you see small town after small town and even just crossroads one after another. Not so much flash, but then, as a small town gal, I like it that way.
It's fun to watch the big city parades and performances on the screen later, but the neat thing about the small towns is that the people there don't get turned into an audience, They are the purpose, and it's a grand feeling for us all to know we are not alone and to feel the energy that we generate as we interact with one another.
My Vermont village has a little less than 2000 population, and the whole town (this is New England) about 4000. There were over 500 people in our little downtown green, many carrying flags and comparing signs, nearly all homemade. Route 7 goes through, so we get a lot of weekend traffic. The honks and waves and whoots WAY outnumbered the rude gestures, which were few. We had fun waving and smiling at them anyway.
I should add that the last big protest was Hands Off, and we had at least 750 people that time, with people coming from all the towns in upper Otter Valley. Since then nearly all those towns have their own indivisible or other groups, and they all had good crowds, so the growth in numbers is phenomenal. Whole families and folks of all ages.
Some folks had organized a "flag relay" with a large flag being carried by car from town to town, handing the flag off at each town, starting at Vermont's south border and ending at the Canadian border. The towns timed their rallies/protests to coincide with when the relay reached them. Ours was 10- noon, and the car came through at noon. It was nice touch, but to tell the truth, it was all the people that made it meaningful, and beautiful.
There's also another report of right wing violence. Some MAGAt with a rifle fired into the crowd of 10,000 in front of the Utah state capitol in Salt Lake City. One wounded badly enough for it to be classed "life threatening." The (surprise surprise) 20-nothing white male gunman has been caught.
It's now confirmed that the "violence" in downtown LA at the conclusion of the enormous demonstration held there (it took an hour for the parade to pass me as I photographed ) was in fact initiated by the LA Sheriff's Department and not by demonstrators. It was the LASD trying to start another post-demonstration cop riot like they did after the Chicano Moratorium Against The War way back in 1970. (What else do you expect from an organization that sticks their newcomers as county jail guards for 10 years, so they've lost any skill they might have possessed about acting as civilized humans, then turn them loose on the streets against average citizens?). At least the LAPD seems to have learned the lesson about allowing cops to riot after the 2007 MacArthur Park Riot they were officially found guilty of - and had to pay a few million for damages and injuries.
The film clip was wonderful. So much joyous determination and love for the better angels of our country. As someone who went to a protest Saturday, I watched this with tears in my eyes. Beautiful. Let’s keep marching, showing up, and “organizing with love at the center.”
Making Art, being creative, in its endless forms offers an avenue for political activism and very needed right now.
This beautiful TED talk by Amie McNee called “The case for making art when the world is on fire” made that present for me and this includes “artists and non-artists” so, everyone.
Here’s the link: https://www.ted.com/talks/amie_mcnee_the_case_for_making_art_when_the_world_is_on_fire?user_email_address=a9e260656762c779e2a99e8fa60762df&lctg=62d1b4f85473360814426b77
I suggest that our self expression in all its myriad forms is art and that self expression arrises as we more and more feel a sense of responsibility for our world.
During a Friday interview with MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, New York Times columnist M. Gessen – who authored the book "Surviving Autocracy" — gave a frank assessment of the state of American opposition to the Trump administration. According to Gessen two bright spots in the current American political landscape are the multiple legal defeats Trump has suffered in the federal judiciary and the prevalence of protests. But he observed that neither the courts nor protests alone can put a stop to the administration's actions, and that Americans can be misled into thinking things aren't as bad as they are amidst the busy nature of their day-to-day lives.
To strengthen the resistance, he urges us to create a very inspiring mission statement. He suggests Americans contrast Trump's promise to bring America back to an "imaginary past" and counter it with a clear proposal for a "glorious future," delivered by leaders using the power of the bully pulpit to rally the people. MSN.com May 30, 2025
I learned an important nugget from Gessem: In an autocracy, he said, we feel that our reality is increasingly being constricted and then fail to realize that we have many more opportunities to express resistance than we think. Many Russians, for example, looking 20 years into the past have noticed windows of opportunity to act in which they failed to seize the moment to stop Putin's rise to power. So did the Germans after WWII.
In sum, according to Gessem, we need: 1) a “glorious future” message, and 2) while overcoming our sense of constriction, we need to actively look for the many opportunities to resist that right now are hiding in plain sight of all of us. Makes me think of what I saw in Ecuador where people expressed their discontent by banging on their pots and pans for ½ hour each day at 7 PM. Elsewhere all church bells around the state rang for 15 minutes. Small gestures of resistance, but those too should not be discounted. Other suggestions?
So true Robert — much bigger and more diverse turnout — even on a very rainy day in Patchogue, NY! No MAGA trucks on the street. Our goal is to turn Long Island blue again.
Democracy Labs created this interactive global map of over 300 NO KINGS DAY photos. I cited your post in it. Keep up the great work!
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/06/16/global-map-of-no-kings-day-photos/
Global map of NO KINGS DAY photos and how to create crowdsourced maps like PEOPLE OVER PAPERS
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/06/16/global-map-of-no-kings-day-photos/
https://youtu.be/ptKvyjcE8Ow?feature=shared
"No Kings" in Ithaca, NY... a clown sketch... re: da parade: https://youtu.be/ptKvyjcE8Ow?feature=shared
My hubby and I live half week in ATL and half at our rural farm near Chattanooga TN. The area is VERY Red. We opted for a smaller setting to give a voice to lesser known cities and wow the turnout was spectacular! Amazing turnout. Approximately 2,000 people. Peaceful, joy filled and cars driving the 4 corners of the downtown park were in the mood to support the crowd. Only one 🤡 Truck shouting expletives. There were young and the elderly, clergy, queer, immigrants, white, black, brown and Asian.
I was nervous about violence. We came prepared but being older worried about chaos. The organizers were on their game. It was a powerful morning. So proud of the southerners who came together to show we are a force!
We attended a No Kings protest in Highlands, NC, 2020 (the most recent data) population 1,014 year round. Summer triples the population with influxes of retirees.
Turnout for NK day protest was 700+!!!
Retirees vote!
Marlene, You’re a hero of mine, and I’m honored to hear from you.
Hello from San Francisco, where I was park of the No King sign in the sand. It was wonderful! More young people than I’ve seen before, families, old people, and politically-minded dogs stood in formation for an hour for photos. A bunch of new friends got coffee and went to the big march down downtown. Thanks to all of you!
OK, OK we were all great and I am proud of all of us but we now must look forward not backwards. I really think we need something on the calendar ASAP and what better day that the 4th of July. We do it in the morning before the parade and the mandatory barbecue ? I honestly believe it can work. This is an optimistic crowd, so what do you all think? I'm certainly gonna run it up my Indivisible Santa Barbara flag-pole.
I've been going through looking for pics of small town events, and it is fun. You really get a sense of how many people are out there, when you see small town after small town and even just crossroads one after another. Not so much flash, but then, as a small town gal, I like it that way.
It's fun to watch the big city parades and performances on the screen later, but the neat thing about the small towns is that the people there don't get turned into an audience, They are the purpose, and it's a grand feeling for us all to know we are not alone and to feel the energy that we generate as we interact with one another.
My Vermont village has a little less than 2000 population, and the whole town (this is New England) about 4000. There were over 500 people in our little downtown green, many carrying flags and comparing signs, nearly all homemade. Route 7 goes through, so we get a lot of weekend traffic. The honks and waves and whoots WAY outnumbered the rude gestures, which were few. We had fun waving and smiling at them anyway.
I should add that the last big protest was Hands Off, and we had at least 750 people that time, with people coming from all the towns in upper Otter Valley. Since then nearly all those towns have their own indivisible or other groups, and they all had good crowds, so the growth in numbers is phenomenal. Whole families and folks of all ages.
Some folks had organized a "flag relay" with a large flag being carried by car from town to town, handing the flag off at each town, starting at Vermont's south border and ending at the Canadian border. The towns timed their rallies/protests to coincide with when the relay reached them. Ours was 10- noon, and the car came through at noon. It was nice touch, but to tell the truth, it was all the people that made it meaningful, and beautiful.
There's also another report of right wing violence. Some MAGAt with a rifle fired into the crowd of 10,000 in front of the Utah state capitol in Salt Lake City. One wounded badly enough for it to be classed "life threatening." The (surprise surprise) 20-nothing white male gunman has been caught.
It's now confirmed that the "violence" in downtown LA at the conclusion of the enormous demonstration held there (it took an hour for the parade to pass me as I photographed ) was in fact initiated by the LA Sheriff's Department and not by demonstrators. It was the LASD trying to start another post-demonstration cop riot like they did after the Chicano Moratorium Against The War way back in 1970. (What else do you expect from an organization that sticks their newcomers as county jail guards for 10 years, so they've lost any skill they might have possessed about acting as civilized humans, then turn them loose on the streets against average citizens?). At least the LAPD seems to have learned the lesson about allowing cops to riot after the 2007 MacArthur Park Riot they were officially found guilty of - and had to pay a few million for damages and injuries.
The film clip was wonderful. So much joyous determination and love for the better angels of our country. As someone who went to a protest Saturday, I watched this with tears in my eyes. Beautiful. Let’s keep marching, showing up, and “organizing with love at the center.”