After Port Townsend’s previous “No Kings” rally drew more than 2,000 attendees June 14, event organizers aim to beat that tally with PT’s next “No Kings” rally on Saturday, Oct. 18.

“This looks to be even bigger, both locally and nationally, than our June ‘No Kings’ rally,” said Gina McMather, who serves as the leadership chair for the Port Townsend Indivisible group. “The ‘No Kings’ movement is still growing.”

McMather noted that, in June, the first “No Kings” event inspired more than 1,700 individual events across the country, and as of the week prior to Oct. 18 rally, more than 2,400 events had already been registered, with a number of new groups created.

“We even have two additional groups, here in Jefferson County, planning events on Oct. 18, one in Quilcene, and one in Port Ludlow, from noon to 1 p.m., at the corners of Oak Bay and Paradise Bay roads,” McMather said.

The “No Kings” rally in Port Townsend on Oct. 18, organized by Indivisible Port Townsend, invites the public to a peaceful rally and march, with the democracy rally in the Kah Tai Lagoon Park meadow kicking off shortly before 1 p.m., to be followed by sign-waving along East Sims Way, and a walk down to Pope Marine Park.

Port Townsend Indivisible co-founder Debbi Steele, whom McMather credited with taking the lead on pulling the Port Townsend “No Kings” event together, noted that Indivisible started in Port Townsend in 2017, during the first Trump administration.
McMather sees the “No Kings” event as a means to call out “inhumane deportation practices, arbitrary tariffs, media censorship, sending troops into cities and corruption at the highest levels,” by partnering with more than 100 other organizations across the country.

Steele also aims to celebrate the positive spirit and deeds of the local people who stand up against what they see as wrong.

“I want this event to help bring joy as well,” Steele said. “We live in a wonderful community, made up of individuals who work together to support each other and what’s right.”

PT’s “No Kings” event on Oct. 18 will include performances by the Unexpected Brass Band at 12:45 p.m. to start, as well as the Democracy Bucket Brigade drum corps and bagpiper Nancy Fredrick, with information provided by Port Townsend Indivisible, the Jefferson County Democrats and the Jefferson County Immigrant Rights Advocates (JCIRA).

The event’s public speakers, who are tentatively set to begin addressing the public around 1:10 p.m., will include not only McMather, but also Angela Gyurko, of the League of Women Voters, and a public reading of an anonymous immigrant’s account.

“We’ll be reading aloud from the 25 articles of impeachment against Trump,” Steele said. “And the immigrant who had written about how Trump’s presidency had impacted them was worried about speaking in public, which is heartbreaking in itself, so someone will read their account in public for them. And Angela will be attesting to how lucky people in this community are, that we take care of each other.””

In the midst of all these other messages, McMather emphasized that “No Kings” is itself the message, “and no dictators, either, is the message for Washington and the current regime.” McMather objects to what she sees as the “overreach and abuse of power threatening our nation’s democracy,” as well as to the “inhumane” cuts made to health care and “other federal programs that benefit working people, to profit the nation’s wealthiest.”

McMather added, “We don’t do dictators or kings in America. We are demonstrating peacefully to show power belongs to the people. We do not belong to a ruler or billionaires. But when we get out there as a community, with our music and our speakers and signs, we’re going to have a good time too.”