13 Comments
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Sydnor, Sandra B's avatar

Great and immediate coverage of what strength in numbers feels like even in small town America! So proud of our citizens!🇺🇸

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HelenWheels's avatar

It was great to feel the burst of sanity in the air. Thanks to all who organized this effort. We have to stay noisy!

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Chris Hegarty's avatar

This is really cool; love the interesting protest signs.

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Eileen Steele's avatar

Once again, thank you Dave for giving us a snap shot of today’s No Kings March. I was proud to see our community come out to utilize their legal right to a redress of grievances. It was well organized and peaceful. And it made me aware of the deteriorating conditions of the pedestrian bridge and sidewalks downtown.

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Phthor Quiddity's avatar

Hunter Butler has been sent here from 1985 to bogart the last doob in my pill bottle and drive us to Pizza Hut in his patchouli-stinking VW microbus. I am into it.

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Bridges's avatar

Dave - thanks for your excellent reporting. The organizers were various branches of the Democratic party (including Indivisible), controlled literally from the top. The "interesting protest signs" were copied from designs posted on the web by the Democratic Party, which also provided many of the "spontaneous' comments that were trotted out by participants. You can see identical signs in other protests around the country. Doesn't sound like a grassroots event does it?

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Jenn B's avatar

The Democratic Party didn’t send all of those people the variety of posterboard, cut up cardboard boxes, left over wood poles, magic markers, paint and tape. That was grass roots. Not everyone is Mr or Mrs Creative, and needed to go to the web to get ideas for their signs. There are only so many things to say and with the volume of signs, there will be repetition. A lot of people have the same opinion about this and may have expressed it in the same way that they’ve heard others put it. Other than the organization of the event, which was excellent, it was 3000 people individually showing up for a cause they (we) believe in. More of an “if you build it, they will come” opportunity. Democrats, Independents, disaffected Republicans across the country are tired of what our government has become.

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Geary Sexton's avatar

Grassroots or nationally based, the meaning is the same. Trump is not a king. No matter what he or his followers think, he doesn’t have complete control over this country.

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Josh's avatar

I agree, Dave--thanks for the excellent reporting. It was pleasant to exercise an American right. Clearly, the protests were organized, and organized well. I thank the organizers. I'm not sure what Bridges means by a grassroots event, but if it is one that isn't organized, then I suppose this wasn't grassroots. On the other hand, I saw a lot of signs that were homemade and unique to individuals, in addition to ones that were identical to others. I'm curious where Jenn is getting the 3000 number; it seems in the ballpark, but Dave reports hundreds. At any rate, what struck me was the size. 50501 is claiming that the No Kings protests today had 8.6 million people from around the country, which would put it at about double the size of the 2017 Women's March protests. Looking at Wikipedia, this may be the largest single-day protest event in US history. But obviously it is difficult to estimate these things, and it would be intellectually arrogant to jump the gun. Still, the thought that those of us who protested were part of something so historic--and so peaceful, at least locally here in Lafayette--fills me with patriotic pride.

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Josh's avatar

Thank you.

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Jenn B's avatar

Welcome! I tend to think that the 3000 is pretty accurate, especially when I think of it as 1/5 of Mackey Arena. That easily could’ve filled up the space around the courthouse.

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Dave Sattler - cartoonist's avatar

Love the time lapse! Genius.

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