No Kings 3 is an opportunity...

Barbara Jatkola, Letter to the Editor - Keene Sentinel

Who are we as a nation? When did we stop believing in the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, and the Pledge of Allegiance? 

When did we stop believing in all people’s unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? In the rejection of kings and tyranny? 

When did we stop believing in the Bill of Rights, free speech, freedom of religion (or no religion), and a free press? 

When did we stop believing in voting rights and civil rights, and in the right of habeas corpus (the procedure that allows any person detained on a charge “without sufficient cause” to challenge their detention in court), the right to a fair and speedy trial, and the protection from illegal search and seizure? 

When did we stop believing in three coequal branches of government: legislative (Congress), executive (president, vice president, cabinet), and judicial (courts)? When did Congress and the Supreme Court decide to give over much of their power to the president? And why? 

When did we stop believing in liberty and justice for all? When did we stop welcoming immigrants and start hating them? 

When did we stop believing in the value of public education, of a diversity of ideas, of the concepts of “love your neighbor” and “we’re all in this together”?

 Today, roving bands of federal agents, with their masks and guns and violent ways, attack us with impunity, arrest and imprison us unlawfully, kill us with the promise of immunity. 

The president and his minions are bankrupting us with their tariffs and wars of choice and tax breaks for billionaires and millionaires. They are endangering us with cuts to social services, health insurance subsidies, healthcare benefits, and food programs; with the overturning of policies meant to protect our environment and promote clean air and water; with hateful rhetoric and notions of white supremacy; with the decimation of the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, and public health. 

“No Kings 3” is an opportunity to start believing again. To take up the banner of democracy and reassert the promise of America. If you’ve stopped believing in that promise, I hope you’ll ask yourself when that happened and why. And if you want to believe again, please join us on March 28 in seeking to reclaim the rights and aspirations expressed in our foundational documents. Because some of us still believe.