J M Wetherington Sr

Cindy and I happened to be staying nearby on October 18th, so we decided to take part in the No Kings Protest that was being held in Statesboro, Georgia.

This was the first No Kings Protest we had attended, since we were too far from any of the locations for the first one that was held back in June of 2025.

I will admit, we had a little bit of trepidation. Some family members had also expressed concern when they found out we planned to attend. But I figured if we were going to attend our first it might be best that it was in a smaller town, and I think I was right.

As I wrote to one family member who was concerned for our safety:

Here is the major reason I feel compelled to participate. This administration wants us to be afraid. Republican Party leaders and MAGA followers are framing this as a “Hate America” protest meaning, to them, that those who are a part of the rallies must hate America. They are doing their best to discourage people from participating and I think that is, in part, because the first one held in June had more than 5 million people across the country take part. The estimates are that this day of rallies will be even larger, both in number of locations and number of people participating. So, of course, they want to try and bring that number down by making people afraid.

They also want us to be afraid to raise our voices against them. They want people to be silent sheep who will be ruled by them and remain quiet no matter how badly they try to damage and kill our democracy.

I can’t do that. I do not want to be ruled by fear of these madmen. I refuse to be ruled by fear of a mad wannabe king.

Gandhi said, “Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.”

The fear I have, the fear that motivates me to engage this way, is that the country I leave my children and grandchildren, will be a country that does not allow the freedoms I had. That it will be a country that is ruled by demented people who do not believe or defend the freedom of speech and the freedom to exercise “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as promised in the Declaration of Independence that our forefathers sought when breaking away from a ruling king 250 years ago.

THAT is the fear that lives in me now.

When this nightmare is over, and part of the reason for these rallies is to end this nightmare, we will see that there were three kinds of people in this country. Those who stood against Trump and his destruction of American values, those who enabled him, and those who watched and did nothing.

I could never be part of the second kind and do not want to be part of the third kind.

So I hope you understand that I love you and value your feelings and worries, but I won’t be able to not try and do my part to bring this country back to what it was before Trump and his followers. I feel that I HAVE to stand against his desire and intention to rule this country like a king. This country belongs to THE PEOPLE!

By my rough estimate, there were between 500 to 600 people in attendance. We saw NO counter protesters, no National Guard or military presence, no ICE presence and I observed one uniformed city police officer who mostly stood across the street and watched for any kind of disturbance. Though I didn’t see any (because, you know, you’re not SUPPOSED to see them), I feel sure there had to be undercover law enforcement in the crowd.

But no one gave law enforcement any reason to take action.

The gathering was raucous but respectful, passionate but peaceful, and determined but decidedly nice.

In a word; it was fun.

Fun to be with people who want to stand for democracy and against monarchy. Fun to see so many gathered together in a peaceful protest. Fun to know that there ARE still those who stand for America. Fun to feel like we were doing our part, even as small as it was, to say No Kings in our country.

I would estimate that 80% of people who drove by honked in support, waved or smiled as we lined the streets, 10% did nothing, and 10% gave us the one-finger salute or a thumbs down. One old fart (I can describe him as such because I’m an old fart), leaned out of his pickup truck window and said, “We don’t have a king, we have a President, so what are you people protesting? What are you protesting? Dumbass people.”

As one of our number said when the old fart drove off, “You can’t fix stupid, so let it go.“

After two hours, we left feeling good, feeling better about participating, and feeling tired, lol. Us old farts can’t stand for so long (I brought a chair for Cindy so she could sit, but it was still in the full Georgia sun) or chant for so long as our younger protesters, but we gave it our best shot. And that is all any of us can do.

No Kings!

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