No Kings! is the theme for today’s rallies against the Trump administration’s actions. It is being coordinated by the group 50501, which early on started with organizing rallies in all 50 state capitals on one day.
April 19 is a fitting day for No Kings! rallies because this is the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, which was the first battle of what became the Revolutionary War in the United States, eventually winning our freedom from the British Empire and its king – or occasional queen regent.
For those who may not know, Lexington and Concord are near Boston, Massachusetts. (I grew up in Massachusetts, although in the far western section near the Vermont border; still we learned with pride our early history and visited historic sites in and around Boston as children.) Longfellow’s poem “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” was written about the night before the battle, when Revere and several others took off on horseback to warn the militias in those towns to be ready for a battle with the British army.
The Old North Church in Boston is central to the story. It let Revere and the other riders know how the British were approaching by using signal lanterns in its steeple, “one if by land and two if by sea.” There were two lanterns placed when the Bostonians realized that the British were coming in from the river, so the riders knew where they had to go and who they had to warn that night.
In preparation for today’s rallies, the Old North Church, which still stands in Boston, hosted a different kind of light show, with messages projected onto it during the night.
The rallies today will continue to proclaim that the American people value our democracy and protest against Donald Trump and his adminstration’s action. When DT says things like “I am the law,” he is proclaiming himself a king with the power to decide what the law is and who should be punished. We are seeing this play out in front of us in myriad ways, but, right now, most prominently in the arrest/kidnapping of people and imprisoning them in the United States or even another country without charges or trial.
Those are some of the grievances lodged against George III 250 years ago.
No!
No then and no now!
No Kings!
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is to begin with an exclamation. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/04/18/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-19-2025/
Joanne Corey 