Melrose Activists to Host “No Kings Day” Rally on Saturday
By Ellen Putnam
Activists in Melrose and surrounding communities plan to host a march and rally on Saturday for “No Kings Day,” which is a day of planned protests nationwide against various policies of the Trump administration.
Saturday’s event in Melrose is being organized by the Melrose/Wakefield chapter of Indivisible Mass Coalition, an organization that aims “to strengthen constituent power in Massachusetts and improve democracy,” and Mobilize Melrose, a local group that has the goal of sharing “actions at the local, state and national level that we can take together to resist a harmful federal policy agenda that does not represent our values.”
“We started talking to each other after the election in November, knowing we wanted to take a stand,” explained Indivisible Melrose Wakefield Plus member and rally organizer Sue Herz, “In January, the first couple dozen of us got together on Zoom, and it just grew from there.”
The rally on Saturday will begin at City Hall at 1pm, and will proceed to the Ell Pond gazebo for “a family-friendly atmosphere” with speeches, music, face painting, and a food truck. According to the organizers, speakers will include elected officials as well as “those targeted by the current administration, including people of color, veterans, immigrants, as well as those who are Muslim, Jewish, Deaf, LGBTQ, or disabled. ASL interpreters will be present to facilitate communication for all.”
Rally at Melrose City hall in February
Boston’s Pride parade will be taking place on Saturday, and Herz noted that Melrose’s event will celebrate Pride as well: “It’s absolutely, very strongly both. We’re all celebrating the same things, and expressly so.”
While the deployment of military force against protestors in Los Angeles is currently receiving national attention, Herz shared that organizers have fewer concerns about that kind of response in Melrose. “I think we’re in a pretty friendly area,” she said, “and our march and rally are going to be very kid-friendly. I just don’t picture it. We talked to the police chief, and he doesn't anticipate any issues. But many of us are trained in responding peacefully if any agitators do show up.”
Organizers stated in a press release about the event: “A core principle behind all No Kings events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values and to act lawfully at these events.”
“This administration wants us to feel afraid, powerless, and isolated,” reflected Herz, “and part of what this rally is about is saying that, in fact, we’re powerful and courageous and we’re a community. None of us has ever worked to save democracy in America before, so we are essentially building the plane while we’re flying it, but we are doing our best. The rally and march are one way of doing what we can to say that this administration does not speak for all of us. It has not been given a green light to take apart everything we love about this country.”
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