11M of We the People said No Kings!!!

Good morning Engaged Durhamites for Democracy!

For those of you new to this Substack, the main mission of Engaged Durhamites for Democracy is to grow this movement. We lead with kindness and positivity with the main goal of reaching out to others and participating in peaceful acts of resistance to save our democracy. We will focus on elections in the future. Right now, we are trying to ensure we have elections as we need to oust this regime that is curtailing our freedoms. We the People have power! We need more people to join us to get 3.5% of the population acting consistently! I love how many joined yesterday as we are now close to 1000!! For those new, please share this on your social media as we need more joining! We welcome you!!

These posts are meant to help filter the many things that are happening to allow you to reduce how many things you read and focus on the pertinent things we need to be fighting and not be distracted by the many shiny objects or to feel overwhelmed as that makes us feel helpless and demotivates us to act.

This post is meant to inspire and motivate us to keep acting. We usually do not list action opportunities within the posts. I instead post them separately every Friday in the later morning, call them Action Opps and use the same icon if you view this on the app. For those of you who just joined, please look back at Friday for the many ways you can resist this week this coming week as we have 9 protests scheduled, soon to be 10. Bruce has volunteered to take over Gabriel’s Friday corner protests (thanks Gabriel for doing it for many weeks, and thanks Bruce for taking it over!).

Another great way to learn what is happening is to visit Laura’s Durham Resistance webpage. She keeps it up to date with all of the ways you can plug in! Thank you Laura for working hard to help grow this movement!!

https://durhamresistancehub.com/

I urge those of you who want to step up and lead a weekly protest to please let me know. You can email me at Romeoboots@proton.me. I can help set up a mobilize link for you and advertise your protest. If you have yet to join one of the weekly protests, they are a blast. We have them in Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh. We are everywhere and most importantly, we are not going away!!!

An update on Bruce is that he has been walking from Durham to DC as a protest since June 2 and has been gathering letters for Senator Tillis. He is almost there! I learned he might be able to meet with Tillis’ Chief of Staff! Wow! Please follow his journey on Laura’s Facebook page!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/199NuTrKVJ/

Wow! Wow! Wow. What a day!! Reports coming in from all over. Biggest turnout so far!! Some are estimating that 11M joined a protest yesterday! This is more than double the first rally on April 5. Wow!!

Estimated turnout in Durham was 5,000, 10,000 in Raleigh, and 2,000 in Chapel Hill. Holy cow!! This aerial view of Durham shows that it is bigger than Hands Off! On April 5, which had been our biggest so far. Thanks again to Julia, Christine, Elizabeth, Monica, and Louise who did the heavy lifting. I helped some, but not as much as those four activism warriors!!

The energy in Durham was amazing. And people loved the booths at the end as a way to gather. People were back at the Bull chanting at 2:30pm. Yes Durham!!!!

We got to hear from Emerson Kirby, our Durham Dems Chair and Anita Earls who is running for re-election on NC Supreme Court.

And what was amazing about Durham was how many young people were there. That’s quite different from our prior three marches. The sleeping giant is waking up, and it’s the youth that’s rousing the giant! When I asked the young folks how they heard about it, they said, “It was everywhere!” That is amazing!!! Thanks to Maddie, Elizabeth and Laura for being loyal Reddit posters! This is helping us so much. Thank you Robert, JJ, Michelle, and Brenda for being there to sing. Sorry we could not find you Michelle and Brenda in the sea of people.

I spoke with many who also were attending their first protest in their life. Gil and his dad Grant both attended their first protest and attended Chapel Hill’s No Kings. Here is why Gil went. Inspirational!

I attended No Kings today to do my part in the fight for democracy and renew my faith that democracy can survive. Freedom is under threat in this country by what can only be described as a tyrannical regime: oppressive, heavy-handed, and pursuing absolute power at breakneck speed. I believe we're at a turning point, and to save ourselves we must speak up...loudly and as one voice. I'm glad to have been a part of it.

Amazing news. If you guys remember from way back, I have a 76-year-old neighbor who voted for the first Democrat in his life when he voted for Josh Stein (could not vote for Robinson). He voted for the not-my-president, who we call TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) three times. I have been asking him to attend each of the four big marches we have held in Durham. We have had good conversations about tariffs, social security, and now Medicare. He did not attend the first three, but he was at the rally yesterday!!! If somebody like my neighbor attended his first rally in his life as a registered Republican, who votes Republican every time, that tells you that many in our country are not OK with what’s happening. I was so thrilled to hear he was there, and I’m sad I didn’t get to see him. It also talks about the importance of persistence. I have invited him to come since we started having these marches, not thinking he would ever do it, but still just trying to open the door. And then he came, which is amazing. A similar thing happened to Cheryl, who had been talking to her neighbor who was reluctant to attend a protest. She has invited her to all four as well. Cheryl came home on Friday with a note in her mailbox, which she thought was telling her that her lawn was too long. Instead, it was her neighbor saying that yes she would come to the protest. Absolutely amazing persistence and inclusion. It really makes a difference!!!!

These are the kind of things we need to do to reach out to all the right and the left because we are In the Right against those In the Wrong. We need to be inclusive and try to get as many to join us as possible no matter who they voted for in 2024. This is the way we reach the 3.5% by not judging but rather welcoming in those who are with us fighting the oligarchy that it trying to destroy our democracy.

Also, some of our folks sent pictures from Winston-Salem, Dover, NH, Valley Forge, PA, West Lafayette, Indiana (Mark reported 1500 there!! Wow!), Muscatine, Iowa (Beth reported 300 which is a record for that small town!), Springfield, IL (Kelly so glad you found one to attend in that red area!), and Phoenix, AZ (my Dad attended before getting on a flight yesterday but he did not want to miss it). My father is 85 and attended his first protest on March 4. He voted Republican his whole life except for when TACO started running. He is now an amazing activism warrior who is fighting for our democracy.

Many from our group at all three marches in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill were milling about spreading the word about the next big event: “Triangle Bridges to Freedom” on July 6th (I will post about this separately later today as I don’t want it to get lost in my posts that can be a bit long). So much enthusiasm for this next event!! Jennifer, you had the best idea! So grateful for the talent and passion of so many in our group! People love that it is Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Cary, Carrboro all working together on a central message: Protect Freedom which will be prominent from every bridge in the Triangle. Can’t wait to see the impact as the mobilize sign-ups start coming in. And I met Will at the protest in Durham who might be able to use his drone to record the event. Wow!! Love how many people I am meeting in this movement who have such amazing skills!

Our planning committee is working hard to make the event a success. We also have a dedicated group who will be helping make signs for the bridges. My heart overflows with how people are working together. The positivity and generosity is absolutely heart-warming!

I cannot write this post without mentioning the very somber news on the day of protests as a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband were fatally shot in an act of political violence. Another lawmaker and his wife in Minnesota were shot. They canceled the No Kings rallies in those cities out of fear. We cannot live in a world where violence is the solution to our problems. So so scary. We must call about this and urge our elected officials to speak out about violence as our lawmakers should be able to do their jobs without risk of personal harm. My heart goes out to those families. So so sad.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06/14/us/minnesota-shootings

On a brighter note, TACO strikes again. He does things then realizes later that maybe what he was doing was a bad idea. He has now stopped ICE raids at workplaces, particularly farms, as he realizes the economy depends on these workers. Duh! That brave pastor told him this many months ago. Maybe he did not hear her? Our country is stronger with immigrants. We have criminals running this country and trying to get rid of our neighbors. We will not stand for this!!!

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/us/politics/trump-ice-raids-farms-hotels.html

I close with an amazing series for those history buffs. Please check out Heather Cox Richardson’s YouTube series on the Journey to the American Democracy. Thanks, Annie for sending.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2dS6uX1RkUyIQKUhI72xmstYGNpN_k1B

Finally, I leave you with two amazing videos. One is a gorgeous aerial view of the protest in Ocean Beach. The other is the big bad parade that was not well attended for the not-my-president. So sad the weather was not great for your wasteful $45M parade (please note the extreme sarcasm!). Disgraceful! Thanks, Mark for sending.

We the People have the power. We are amassing our power and growing more each day. We will be victorious. I love Jess Craven’s words:

Weak. Presidents. Can. Be. Stopped

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Have a lovely Sunday all. I will be distributing red cards today to our immigrant neighbors to let them know their rights and which warrant requires them to open their door. If you want to join, please sign up using the link in the Action Opps post on Friday.

Warmly,

Kathryn