No Kings 2025

Gathered in the grass of Doyle Park at the end of the route.

Made a little good trouble today. Karen, our daughters, our niece Claire and I marched a couple of miles in Santa Rosa, Calif. with a lot of other people in support of freedom, democracy, rule of law, American ideals, and basic human decency. 

There were two marches that began in different places and then converged to continue as one toward a large park. Crowd size is impossible to estimate when you're in it, but I've been in local demonstrations that had 5000 to 6000 and this felt larger. Indivisible Sonoma County, which helped organize the event, claims 10,000. All I know is that we overheard stunned local cops saying that it was WAY more people than they expected.

Shark and Penguin showed up. I complimented the Penguin because whoever was in there could only walk in a very small shuffle and kept it up for a couple of miles.

I took this photo of our march as we rounded a corner. This march was soon joined by another one just about as large.

Participants were in great spirits, volunteers in yellow vests kept everything orderly, cops were smiling and managed traffic in our favor. We ran into many friends, whom I won't name in case they'd rather I didn't.

Speaking of which: I've seen advice online and in print about not letting the authorities identify you at events like this. Wear a mask, don't carry your phone, don't drive your car, don't post on social media. I disagree completely. 

I want them to know who I am. Read my posts, put me on the enemies list. I'd be proud.  Any time wasted on a white, male, middle-class, squeaky-clean citizen means less time for hassling someone who isn’t all those things.

A video that captures some, but not all, of the extent of our march. That's a lot of good people.

EDITED TO ADD some aerial photos taken by our local Indivisible group. My family is down there somewhere!