Dear Family, Friends, and Diary,
Folks have been decorating Highway 41 overpasses, so it must be time to protest again. Marianne and I have been here before, in June and October last year, and so much more has happened to make protest more important. We put on sun-block, hydrated, packed up RedY with a sign, and headed to Blackstone and Nees, the shopping center that has replaced downtown Fresno.
By the 10am start, plenty of folks were lining the street, making noise and generally enjoying the chance to speak up.
After meeting up with friends, we joined the crowd. Dana was a veteran of these things, but Jim and Antje had not been to local protests before so they were a bit apprehensive. She had received words of caution from friends locally and in her home-country Germany. Although everyone encouraged speaking up, they referred to news coverage showing worrisome protests in the past. (That's what news does: make you worry.)
We had assured them that Fresno was not DC, Birmingham, or Kent State. For his part, Jim remarked on the similarity to protests he had attended a half-century ago, when he was a Navy veteran and college student, protesting a now-almost-forgotten war. The anti-war sentiment was new since Kings I and Kings II and there were a number of veterans and vet organizations making their views known. Veterans traditionally lean conservative, but unprompted and unplanned wars in Venezuela and Iran have undoubtedly pushed some out of the Republican camp. We hope.
I also found more signs referencing Nazi rule of the 1930s and 40s, a theme I resonate with. Are we there yet? No, as demonstrated by peaceful anti-government demonstrations like No Kings III, something unimaginable in 1930s Germany. But I am not the only one who worries about the risk of such a descent into darkness.
Many placards, costumes, and chants decried the general loss of freedom that has accompanied the Trump administration's first year. The message is important, if not as eye-catching as Trump memes and ribald jokes.
Locally, the most difficult may have been the attack on immigrants, although when I reviewed my pictures I noticed that far fewer signs focused there in 2026 compared to 2025. Maybe the continuous threats have succeeded in pushing locals indoors, if not out of the country. It is worth remembering the words engraved on the base of the Statue of Liberty.
In the end, our protest seemed a chance to meet friends, see imaginative neighbors, and enjoy ourselves.
In reflection, was it all too much fun and smiles? Will we ever change our country by gathering with like-thinkers on a pleasant Spring morning?
I think not.
Protest needs to be cranked up a notch or two, to the point that the evil that is afoot becomes universally obvious. Activism needs to be more active in bringing messages to the unaware and uncommitted, even at the risk of uncomfortable, and even dangerous, confrontation.
Stay tuned,
John and Marianne