It was a balmy Saturday last when up to 2,500 people lined Healdsburg Avenue between the freeway exit and the Mill Street Roundabout, the participants chanting and chatting with one another about the common emergency everyone found themselves in.
It was the follow-up to two earlier demonstrations—Feb. 21, also President’s Day, and June 14, also Flag Day. Aligning protests against the Trump administration with national patriotic holidays is no accident: the Red, White and Blue was highly visible all along the route as participants declared their love of country, the Constitution and the rule of law.
Tyra Benoit, one of the voices of Climate Action Healdsburg, helped manage the crowd at the Roundabout, keeping people off the middle of the traffic circle. She carried a sign reading, “If you ever wondered what you would have done in 1930s Germany … You’re doing it now.”
It worked for the first hour, but the numbers eventually overwhelmed the Roundabout. During that period, the Police Department received a report that an an early 2000’s passenger car was circling the Roundabout, honking its horn. The caller stated that the driver exited his vehicle, became confrontational with a protestor, then returned to his vehicle and continued sounding the horn while driving through the roundabout.
The Police report stated, “Officers responded and observed several vehicles honking their horns in the area. However, the vehicle described by the caller was gone on arrival/ unable to be located.”
Benoit was working at the roundabout at that time, 11:15am, and reported she did not see anything occur.
Like the previous No Kings demonstration in June, the signs were many, colorful, pointed and largely humorous. “No Crows With Crowns,” read one. “MLK was our only King,” another. “They’re eating the checks! They’re eating the balances!” A smiling vet’s sign read, “All gave some. Some gave all. One had bone spurs.”
The mood was positive and hopeful, if underlined by a sense of despair. No Kings is a national movement, and as the weekend rolled on the reports, photos and videos added up the numbers: over 2,700 demonstrations, in all 50 states, involving over 7 million people.
As Benoit said, “Being together is the best medicine.”
Aside from the local Climate Action Healdsburg, a coalition of national organizations helped publicize and organize the event, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Conservation Voters, MoveOn and Indivisible—a national organization that arose in the wake of Trump’s 2016 election. It emphasizes local connections and local demonstrations—members are told that if they have to drive over an hour to reach a demonstration, they should organize their own.
One of the area’s Indivisible organizers, Sarah Bradbury, is a former co-publisher of The Healdsburg Tribune. She sent the paper a note that showed us she, too, was on the streets that day.
“Lining south of the roundabout on Healdsburg Ave, we repeated the sense of joy in community and the creativity of participants,” it read. “We reflected an opposition of the current administration and its disregard for our democratic rights and principles. From toddlers and high school students to grandparents and great grandparents our community gathered again on Healdsburg Ave to confirm America has no Kings.”
