HUNDREDS OF GRANDPARENTS and elders crowded an intersection in Oakland during Saturday’s “No Kings” Oakland Elders Rally. A few miles to the west, pedestrian bridges over Interstate 80 were filled with protesters waving to the drivers who honked their horns in a constant chorus of support.
They were just some of the thousands of No Kings Day protests happening nationwide and abroad in opposition to President Donald Trump’s methods and policies. The protests were timed to counter Trump’s military parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Army. It was also the president’s birthday.
Wheelchairs filled the sidewalk outside the Merrill Gardens Senior Living facility, across from the Wendy’s on Broadway and Coronado Avenue in Oakland. Signs opposing cuts to Medicaid were displayed alongside dazzling artistic placards created in craft therapy class. Mostly in their 70s and 80s, rally-goers joined family members and waved at drivers, as drivers waved back and shouted, “No Kings!”
“Who did the Nazis scapegoat? They scapegoated the Jews,” said Don Goldmacher, organizer with Seniors for Democracy. “Who is Trump scapegoating? Those illegal criminal immigrants. It’s the same playbook. What did the Nazis do in Europe? They burned the books. What is Trump doing? He’s trying to destroy universities and higher education. They are removing references to people of color, historically, including national guards. They are trying to create a white supremacist country, otherwise known as the new confederacy.”
Plenty of time for disobedience
Older people often have plenty of free time to volunteer, according to climate activist Bill McKibben who has recruited thousands of retirees, and they may not worry as much about participating in civil disobedience that could get them arrested.
On the University Avenue pedestrian bridge in Berkeley, someone’s stereo played Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” while a crowd swelled. One woman hung her uncle’s hand-stitched 48-star World War I American Flag against the fence. Another waved a Muslim prayer rug to motorists passing below on I-80. Drivers honked constantly.
One of the protesters was Beatriz Leyva, a former Berkeley school board member. What brought her out to the bridge?
“The threat to children and families, separation of families, illegal kidnapping and deportation to other states,” Leyva said. “Families not knowing where your family members are, biting the hand that feeds our country. It’s ridiculous. It’s unconscionable.”
A comparable crowd formed a mile north on the Gilman Street pedestrian bridge.
“There were protesters on bridges all the way from Fort Ross,” said one couple who drove down to join the protests in San Francisco. “As we got closer to the Bay, they were more and more crowded.”
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