Protest - We must!

Or, "If you stay silent while power goes unchecked, you’re not free you are obedient" that was the message on a protest sign last weekend at the No Kings 3 protest held at the California State Capitol in Sacramento.

My online journal is usually about travel and photography but I can't avoid the Elephant any longer. Since March 3, 2025, I have been photographing/documenting our local protests, and it is now very much a part of my life.

March 3, 2025 to March 7, 2026 El Dorado County, CA

A few of the signs from the "Hands Off" protest on April 4, 2025, California State Capitol, Sacramento, California

March 28, 2026, was the third "No Kings" Protest. Our numbers are increasing with each event. El Dorado County, population 192,000+ and not yet purple, had approximately 3,600 people show up--a record number of protesters for our area--at 13 separate sites from El Dorado Hills to South Lake Tahoe.

Dan and I held our No Kings 3 protest signs up at the Missouri Flat Overpass over US Highway 50. It is a particularly wide stretch of road with 2 lanes in each direction plus turn lanes on either side of the overpass. Standing on the sidewalk we are quite exposed but we are a hardy group.

Following the El Dorado County No Kings 3 protest, Dan and I added our support to the protest at the Capitol. Despite arriving late, there were still thousands of protesters all around the Capitol grounds.

Nationwide, we've gone from about 3 million people attending the April 2025 "Hands Off" events to 8 million people attending the "No Kings 3" events.

While at the Capitol, we strolled around the World Peace Rose Garden established in 2003. The garden has various plaques with thoughts about Peace written by children. This is the one that stopped me.

Everyone loses in War. In December 2013 in Copenhagen, Denmark, I noticed one guy sitting in the freezing cold in front of the Danish Parliament. Nearby were flags, news articles, names of those who support war. On the roundabout a painted sign says "War is Terror, Peace is Possible". A changeable sign shows the number of days the protest has been going on. On the day I was there, people had been standing in protest against wars on terror for 4082 days. The '"Peace Watch" project (https://www.fredsvagt.dk) started October 19, 2001, in protest against Danish participation in the so-called "War on Terrorism"'. Nearby was a sign with an excerpt from a speech President Eisenhower (a man who definitely knew the price of war) gave in 1953. He said "Every gun that is made, every warship that is launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It's spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hope of its children." The Peace Watch protest continues still.

We visited Iraq last November and really enjoyed our time there. We left a country that is really just beginning to recover and rebuild from wars--several. We made new friends.

In a recent exchange of messages with one friend, he wondered how the US could vote for Trump and he hoped "the US votes better next time for the betterment of the world." He said, "I can only pray for that. I lost my childhood to the U.S. invasion I don't want to lose my 20s too." While we were in Iraq he had just moved into his own apartment. Unfortunately, his apartment is near the US Embassy which is now a target of various groups. He moved out to escape the drone bombardments and for his safety and peace of mind.

An ongoing vigil is being held at the John Moss Federal Building (650 Capitol Mall) which is the location of the federal immigration courts. The vigil is mostly behind the federal building on N Street. There were a lot of people there, it was like a party, but it was the chalk art at the parking lot gate to the building that grabbed my attention. The John 3:16 verse with the addendum of "God did not give up his son for this" was perfect.

And, as my lovely Ukrainian friend told me, "The fact that you don't give up and keep trying to change things deserves respect."

And this, "Protest is the people's sacred right when all else fails. Because if people remain silent, they will be oppressed."