I live in Weehawken, New Jersey, directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, where I spent 30 years of my life, and where, on any given Saturday, most of the action is. Normally, I\u2019d hop on the ferry, cross the river, and join the hundreds of thousands marching through the streets of Manhattan.<\/p>\n
But today, for No Kings 3, I decided to go local.<\/p>\n
More than 3,300 events were planned across all 50 states as part of what organizers are calling the largest day of domestic political protest in American history. I knew Manhattan would be electric. What I didn\u2019t expect was that tiny Weehawken, with a population of roughly 15,000, perched on the Palisades high above the river, would be electric too.<\/p>\n
I walked up to Hamilton Park, with its postcard view of the Manhattan skyline, expecting maybe 100 people. What I found was several hundred, local elected officials standing shoulder to shoulder with their neighbors.<\/p>\n
We marched down JFK Boulevard, framed by one of the most spectacular backdrops of any protest in the country.<\/p>\n
If Donald Trump thinks the No Kings movement is \u201ca joke,\u201d as he\u2019s said, then what I saw in Weehawken should give him serious pause. The message was \u201cNo Kings,\u201d but virtually everyone I talked to had a different reason for being there, war, grocery and gas prices, ICE, grifting, airports, and more.<\/p>\n
In other words, more reasons why there should be no King Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am 62 years old, and I can\u2019t remember the last time I\u2019ve been involved in a protest of any kind,\u201d a gentleman named Al said. \u201cI sit in an office all day. I\u2019m not a political guy. But I\u2019m angry enough that I\u2019ve gotten up off my chair, because I really think our country is going in the wrong direction in a big way.\u201d<\/p>\n
He paused, looking at the crowd gathering behind him. \u201cIt must be really bad if it got me and all of these other people out here on a really cold day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karen Brady and Gayle Humphrey have been building North Hudson Resistance, one of the local organizers of No Kings, for a year. In that time, they\u2019ve organized four marches, worked to protect immigrant communities, fought cuts to Medicaid and social services, and coordinated \u201cKnow Your Rights\u201d trainings for residents who fear ICE.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing everything we can to fight the Trump regime,\u201d Gayle told me. \u201cAll the ineptitude, the cynicism, the cruelty, the corruption, the chaos. No strategy except getting rich.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karen noted the group is growing. \u201cWe\u2019re getting stronger in our numbers,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of people are outraged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner was there too, not just as a figurehead, but walking the route.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here for two reasons,\u201d he told me. \u201cOne, to express what everyone\u2019s expressing, to put an end to what\u2019s going on in this country, especially with immigration. There are better, safer ways to do things. And secondly, to make sure everybody\u2019s safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attending his third No Kings event, Turner praised the peaceful nature of the demonstrations and their national impact. \u201cAll these demonstrations across the country have an effect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
New Jersey State Representative Gabriel Rodriguez was also in the crowd, marking his first No Kings march in Weehawken. \u201cThere are some strong feelings, lack of safety, lack of protocol and process,\u201d he told me. \u201cThat\u2019s not very American.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pointed to recent legislation signed by Governor Murphy protecting immigrant communities in Hudson County. \u201cWe\u2019re happy that people are on board in the name of safety and for our communities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His colleague, Assemblyman Larry Wainstein, was equally direct.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody deserves to be treated with respect and dignity,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re working very hard to stand up against Trump and ICE because they\u2019re treating our community with a lack of respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
What struck me most wasn\u2019t just the anger, though it was real and palpable. It was how many people told me this was their first protest.<\/p>\n
Ever.<\/p>\n
A woman originally from my hometown of Pittsburgh stopped to talk with her husband.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my first one,\u201d she said. \u201cMe too,\u201d her husband added. \u201cWe are not the type of people to protest. But things have gone too far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearby stood Kathy, who told me she was \u201calmost 80\u201d and had been to \u201cmany, many, many\u201d protests over her lifetime, as if passing a torch. Mario, a younger marcher, put it plainly: \u201cWe\u2019re tired of the circus. We need this country to get back to what it used to be, a country of freedom. No fascism, no oligarchs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dale, from neighboring West New York, had attended the previous No Kings events in Manhattan but chose Weehawken this time. \u201cI can\u2019t believe what he\u2019s done, not only to us but to the world,\u201d she said, her husband John nodding beside her. \u201cWe are the laughingstock of the world. People need to wake up.\u201d<\/p>\n
On my walk home, I texted a friend who had been marching in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are you?\u201d he wrote. \u201cWant to meet up?\u201d<\/p>\n
He assumed, naturally, that I was in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI attended the march in Weehawken,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeehawken had their own rally?\u201d he shot back.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n
If a lifelong Manhattanite is surprised that Weehawken turned out in force, imagine how it looks from places like Indianapolis, Indiana, where upwards of 60 events were held across that red state.<\/p>\n
This is not a big city phenomenon. It is now local. Like Weehawken.<\/p>\n
What I saw Saturday in Hamilton Park – first-time protesters marching alongside veteran protestors, a mayor walking his own streets, state legislators showing up on a Saturday, and organizers who a year ago had never run a rally now building a real grassroots movement.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not \u201cTrump Derangement Syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s called democracy, and metaphorically, it\u2019s now playing at a theater near you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I live in Weehawken, New Jersey, directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, where I spent 30 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-178628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}