The League of Women Voters Piedmont said that close to 600 local pro-democracy protesters made their way to Piedmont Park on Saturday, March 28 to participate in the nationwide “No Kings” day protest.
“We were absolutely delighted at how many community members from Piedmont and beyond showed up, participated as speakers and musicians, and volunteered,” said LWVP President Lisa Gardner. “And we truly appreciated the collaborations with community officials, local organizations, PHS, and more, as we exercised our constitutional right to peaceful assembly and protest, and celebrated democracy and community together.”
LWVP spearheaded the Saturday event, which was just one rally among thousands that took place around the country and the world on March 28.
Organizers of the nationwide rallies said in a press release that more than 8 million people worldwide participated in the day of protest. A panoply of grassroots organizations organized turnout in rural areas and big cities around the country.
LWVP Voter Services/Board Member Kathleen Quenneville served as MC for the Piedmont rally. Other speakers included Piedmont Mayor Betsy Smegal Anderson, Councilmember Lorrel Plimier (who was present at the rally as co-president of the LWV of California) local activists Susan Miller-Davis and Jonathan Davis, and PHS student Ariadne Tatsis.
Director of Voter Services for League of Women Voters Piedmont Kathleen Quenneville 
Mayor Betsy Smegal Andersen 
City Councilmember Lorrel Plimier 
PHS student Ariadne Tatsis 
Susan Miller Davis 
Jonathan Davis
“No matter what your political affiliation is, I think we are all going to look back on this era and be embarrassed,” said Andersen in her remarks. “We are going to be embarrassed that we have allowed ourselves to be manipulated by online algorithms, isolated by our screens, and walled off by our wealth. Americans have so much more in common than not.
“I still believe in the great experiment that is the United States of America,” she continued. “We, the people, have to be stronger than the economic forces trying to drive us apart from one another.”
Plimier highlighted several LWV efforts at the state level, including its work to oppose a voter ID law (different from the SAVE Act) that will be on the November ballot in California. She said LWV has also worked to get the California Fair Elections Act passed, an act would remove a ban on public financing for elections that will also be put to voters in November.
Miller-Davis highlighted the attacks on climate change. “Trump revoked Biden-era policies and funding on his first day in office. Next, he pulled us out of the Paris climate accords. In December, he quietly dismantled the country’s premier climate research center….The list goes on and on,” she said.
Davis rooted his remarks in the Constitution: “How is it that on this day, when we are joined together with millions of people across this great land to raise our voices and march against tyranny, that we are among the luckiest and most blessed people on earth? We are lucky and blessed because 250 years ago a group of revolutionaries, many without doubt profoundly flawed, declared independence from a king.”
The event also featured musical performances by composer and keyboardist Thomas Blaeschke and vocalist Mary Ellen Callahan, as well as vocalist Tina Harrington (Piedmont Community Church soloist and choral director at The College Preparatory School) who led the crowd in protest songs before the crowd made their way down Highland Avenue.
Thomas Blaeschke and vocalist Mary Ellen Callahan 
Tina Harrington
