On Sept. 20, as the North Country Fair in Arcata was bringing folks from all walks of life together in celebration, another type of assembly was taking place in front of the Humboldt County Courthouse. There, dozens of North Coast neighbors took to the street to protest the current administration amid a host of other issues, including attacks on free speech, ICE raids and encroaching authoritarianism.
Among those gathered was Janie, who says she was born in the ’50s and never protested until recently “I am disgusted,” she said. She was not alone.
The planned Women’s March coincided with Humboldt’s iteration of the Make Billionaires Pay protest taking place on the same day in New York City, where the event joined Climate Week initiatives. Protests also came on the heels of recent political fuel like the government backlash on comments following the killing of far-right commentator Charlie Kirk and the suspension of a talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel for his opinions. Though the numbers on Fifth Street in Eureka did not parallel that of the NYC protest, the attendees were standing up for the same issues.
“I’m here because I love my country,” said K.T., a local protest organizer. Calling Trump a “fascist pig,” she said there were so many reasons to be out on this day. She was not alone in her sentiments about the sitting president.
One Vietnam veteran said that in his opinion, Trump should be “ripped from the presidency as soon as possible.
But the crowd wasn’t just focused on strictly conservative politicians.
As one man, clad in a keffiyeh and holding a sign painted with the Palestinian flag put it, “We’re getting to the point of no free speech and oligarchy, and if we don’t wake up soon, it will be too late.” He continued by calling out the Democratic party, stressing that it needs to “stop coddling corporations and get back to the people.”
Some people were simply concerned more squarely about the well-being of all. Charlotte, who has been a protester since the ’60s, teared up saying, “I just want a chance for us to survive.”
The tone was markedly different from what might be expected of a crowd angry at their government. The protestors, composed mostly of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, were steadfast in their presence on that street corner while simultaneously retaining a genial, communal spirit.
Though the crowd didn’t sing or entertain catchy chants, their signs and flags, most of which were homemade, bore slogans like, “When Injustice Becomes Law, Resistance Becomes Duty,” and “Last Century We Killed Fascists, This Century We Elect Them.” Still, it was clear some demographics were missing from the picture. Joanie agreed. “Where’s everyone who’s 20 to 30 to 40?” she said, pointing to Gen Z as the beacon of the movement’s future.
Black Lives Matter banner in hand, retired minister Tom Lewis was there with other members of the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. For him, protest is a matter of his faith calling him to justice. “Democracy asks us to push back when something is not working.” Despite what the crowd banded together against that day, Lewis says he has faith that we will survive. With a smile he continued, “But I’m not gonna sit back.”
Sasha Senal (she/they) is a writer, environmental educator and aspiring farmer. She can be found exploring Humboldt forests (not unlike her home redwoods on the Sonoma Coast) and considering Black eco-feminism.
This article appears in Red-Light Women, Part I.
When a change of government takes place from a monarchical, tyrannical, despotic, usurped, Godless; to a republican government, the old form is dissolved. Those who lived under it, and did not choose to become members of the new, had a right to refuse their allegiance to it, and to retire elsewhere. By being a part of the society subject to the old government, they had not entered into any engagement to become subject to any new form the majority might think proper to adopt. That the majority shall prevail is a rule posterior to the formation of government, and results from it. It is not a rule binding upon mankind in their natural state. “There every man is independent of all laws, except those prescribed by nature. He is not bound by any institutions formed by his fellow-men without his consent.” Executors of Cruden v. Neale, 2 NC 338, (1796).