Thus ever to kings. These are the words Virginians put on the great seal of their Commonwealth. Look. Above those words stands Virtue, the Amazon female figure clad in a helm and carrying a spear and a sheathed sword. Her left foot holds Tyranny, a tyrant king subdued on the ground, his crown tossed asunder. In Virginia, we have no intention of living under kings. We even put it on our flag.
We participated yesterday in the third NO KINGS rally in Manassas, Virginia. There was quite a crowd. I judged it to be about three times the size of last October’s rally. Although the rally was staged a bit off the beaten path, the spirit was joyous and peaceful, and so amazingly wholesome. The Americans who take time on their day off to protest the current American President and his objectively awful administration, these are the finest, most civic-minded folks I can imagine.
Are they angry with the President? Sure. But they are not raging lunatics as depicted on Fox News and further right media outlets. These are the moms you wait in line with as you drop your kids off at school. They’re the dads you shop with at Home Depot. Why are they there? Because they want a country that prioritizes helping people over frightening them. They want a country where the government doesn’t try to control their bodies. They want an end to the cruelty and a beginning to accountability. They want the predators who rubbed elbows with Jeffrey Epstein to face justice. They want wars meant to distract Americans from that to end.
But honestly, to find out why they’re there, you only need to show up and read the posters and talk to them. It’s the happiest two hours you could spend. It’s enormously life-affirming to walk through a crowd of people who feel the same way that you do about how crazy our world is right now. There isn’t a single person there who won’t stop and tell you why they’re there, who they’re there for, and what changes they want to see in the world.
I invite you, no matter what your political stripes, to attend the next NO KINGS rally. If you oppose their message, just go to see. Walk among them. Talk to them. Don’t go to argue, go to listen and talk. I promise you everyone you meet will be smiling.
This revolution is joyous. It is friendly. It is happy.
But it is firm in its resolve.
No Kings.
Sic Semper Tyrannis.