“No kings, no crowns, no tyrants, no clowns.”
The No Kings protest is now being called the single largest one-day protest during the Trump administration and second largest protest in the history of the U.S.
All across the nation, people gathered on Saturday, June 14 to protest “authoritarianism, billionaire-first politics, and the militarization of our democracy,” according to organizers. Many protestors also took up the cause of standing up against ramping up ICE raids.
Indivisible Tri-Cities sponsored the local No Kings protest on Columbia Center Boulevard in Kennewick. Founders Loren Malone and Chuck Wood estimate 5000 people in at the Tri-Cities protest. Nationwide, protests were held in all 50 states — over five million people altogether. There was even a global protest. At least 15 countries protested in solidarity on June 14.
Loren Malone said, “It was amazing, because we had the diversity of people … young people, old people, all different races, all different sexual orientations. It was veterans. It was so diverse. It was such a beautiful day.”
Malone explained that Tri-Cities Indivisible is part of the nationwide group:
It was started by two congressional staffers in 2016 when Trump was elected for the first time. They put out this Google Doc, [saying] ‘Here's how to help people to organize in their local communities.’ That was the whole premise of it: How do we give an outline to people to be able to organize at home?
Indivisible’s guide can be found at indivisible.org/resource/guide. More recently, the American Prospect published an article in November, ‘Resistance 2.0’, about how our tactics need to change now that Trump has taken office again.
Malone is a physician who grew up in Mississippi, then lived in Oklahoma until she moved here six and a half years ago. She was aware there had been an Indivisible group in the Tri-Cities several years ago, but this spring, she felt called to revive it:
I could not stand by watching our democracy being hammered and our local people losing jobs left and right. A lot of this stuff that has been happening in the last few months … directly affected our community. I said, “Okay, I'm either gonna move to Canada or just start. I'm gonna have to do something.”
Malone went to a Tri-City Democrats meeting in March; that’s where she met Chuck Wood. Together, they decided to resurrect the local chapter of Indivisible Tri-Cities.
Wood is a retired electrical engineer by education, and says he’s “flunking retirement all the time.” He described the Tri-Cities chapter:
We are a nonpartisan political advocacy group committed to defending our democracy, advancing civic engagement, and empowering local residents to hold elected officials accountable through election advocacy and direct action. Indivisible Tri-Cities works to build a more just, inclusive and equitable society for all.
Wood has also served on city council and describes himself as a ‘Blue Dog Democrat’. He said he was concerned about what was going on in Trump’s first term, and even more so with his second one. “I was looking for some way to do something because of the concern, and went to a Tri-City Democrats meeting,” said Wood. “And in the meantime, before that, I started looking for something to do to mitigate what was coming our way, and found Indivisible online.”
Photos by Scott Butner
The new Indivisible group held their first meeting at Richland Public Library. They reserved a room for 30 people — and ended up having to move the meeting outside when 180 people showed up! Woods said, “We just blew it out the doors. We had to take the whole meeting outside because there was no room.”
At the first No Kings event on April 19 at John Dam Plaza, an estimated 400 people came. Next, Indivisible had a May Day protest. Then, they hosted a couple of Hands Off Medicaid protests, including one at Congressman Dan Newhouse’s Richland office. Each event has garnered a bigger crowd.
Wood said that people are showing up in record numbers now because of how bad things are getting. “It's the frustration. It's out-and-out fear,” he said. “[T]he severity of the Trump administration — the path that they're on right now — has really galvanized people.”
The next big event will be on July 17: Protest for John Lewis’s National Day of Action “to honor the legacy of John Lewis and carry forward to fight for democracy, justice, and voting rights.”
A lifelong resident of Eastern Washington, Dori enjoys the outdoors, her family, and making good trouble. She has worked for many years in broadcasting and reporting and believes in the value of the 4th estate. She is a true community advocate that loves Washington.
