Marchers to walk from Chochenyo Park to rally at City Hall
This Saturday, June 14, Alamedans will join other cities across the nation in the “No Kings” [1] protest to emphasize that “a president is not a king and democracy is not for sale.”
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The event starts at 10 a.m. at Chochenyo Park, 2430 Encinal Avenue, where a “family fun pre-protest” will include Statue of Liberty crown-making, sign and button making, bubble blowing, sidewalk chalk drawing, and crafting noisemakers.
At 11:30 a.m., protesters will march from Chochenyo Park to City Hall, 2263 Santa Clara Avenue, where a rally is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m., emceed by former Cirque Du Soleil ringmaster Jeff Raz. The guest speaker will be Mary Boergers, a former member of the Maryland State Senate who was a facilitator of the peace process in Northern Ireland during the 1990s.
Raz is also head of Citizen Joy [3], “a national coalition of artists and arts organizations from all disciplines that are using art to cut through the doom and gloom about politics, explore what we have (and could lose) as citizens, and energize people to do what they can to protect our democratic rights and freedoms.”
The “No Kings” protest in Alameda is among hundreds of protests planned across the U.S. to remind our representatives in Congress that democracy is by the people and for the people, not by a king with unlimited power, organizers state.
“I started organizing protests earlier this year for the first time because, with the growing threats we face in this country, I felt Alameda needs to grow its voice in the pro-democracy movement in the Bay Area and beyond,” said local Indivisible [4] volunteer organizer Tina Davis.
“On June 14, when tanks will roll through the streets of our nation’s capital at a cost of $45 million to Americans, we’ll be visibly protesting the unconstitutional actions of the President,” said All Rise Alameda [5] chair Mary Claire Neumann. “The Alameda community joins millions of Americans saying ‘NO!’ to one-man rule and ‘YES!’ to democracy.”