No Kings Day: Showing Up for Democracy, Love, and Collective Joy

Speaker A: 00:00:01

Welcome, beloveds, to the Connected Pleasure Podcast. I'm Kayla, your host. I go by she, her hers, pronouns. And this is a quick little bonus episode that I wanted to do today.

In light of the upcoming no Kings Day protests rallies tomorrow on Saturday, October 18th.

This is a really important time for us to continue to show that we are not going to be quiet about all the things that are taking place in this country and in this country, I mean, in the US Because I am in the United States and in the world, what happens here ripples out to the world and vice versa. And there are a lot of other wannabe authoritarian regimes trying to rise in other countries. And this is really a day to say no to all of that.

We're saying no to kings in this country. And that is a really important message to the rest of the world as well.

I know this administration, regime, whatever you want to call it, is trying to really make people afraid to come to these rallies. They are trying to show that we are anti American, that we are the problem.

And I want to remind people, even though it's scary, I know it's scary, they wouldn't be doing this if they didn't feel like they were losing.

They are upping the ante and they are trying to instill, instill as much fear in us as possible because they know that this is a really important show of solidarity with each other. And this is not about clashing with the cops and rioting and being troublemakers. Like, this is about good trouble.

And this is about leading with love, with solidarity, with community. We are there to show up and actually be joyful.

This isn't necessarily about fighting with anger, even though we are resolved in who we are and what we stand for. And this is about being joyful. This is about leading with love, leading with joy, leading with pleasure.

I will be attending my local rally in Gig Harbor, Washington, and our chapter of Indivisible that I am a member of is calling for us all to take lead from what Portland, Oregon has been doing and to wear costumes. We're getting, you know, close to Halloween, so it's a great time for us to all put on our costumes that we have and to just have fun.

Lots of people blow bubbles. I would love if there was more music at my rallies. I always want to sing and yet feel slightly weird singing when nobody else is.

So maybe I just need to conquer that fear and just do it. But if you are somebody that wants to play music or sing music or make music, like, do it. This is about joy.

This is about showing up for each other and showing, you know, maybe some of our neighbors in the community that are a little unsure of what this movement is really, what it's all about.

That we are about standing with each other, standing for democracy, and not allowing this administration to take the rights away that we absolutely still have under our Constitution.

I know that they tried to claim that they have power over the Constitution and just dismiss most laws and the Constitution, but it's still here and we still get to fight for it. And if we keep fighting, eventually things are going to shift. So I really encourage you. There are protests or rallies that are all over the country.

The numbers I'm hearing is 2, 500 at this point around the country.

I don't know if that counts the entire world as well, because I know there is like nine or 10 countries that are also going to be having no Kings Day rallies tomorrow as well. So if you aren't in the U.S. stay still, look online and see if there is a no Kingsday protest near you.

Because chances are if you're in one of the major cities, there may be. And yes, I just, I really encourage you to not give in to what, to the propaganda that they are trying to put out there and to show up.

Also, as a note, as a mom, I have a kiddo that is not the greatest in crowds. I have a three year old. He. I tried to take him to one of the protests months and months and months ago. He was not having it.

Just being in big crowds is not great for him. So I love to show up for it.

So I'm gonna go and then I'm gonna encourage my husband to take him and drive around and like honk and hopefully my child is okay with that.

At least they probably won't be like going back and forth like some cars do the whole time that I've been at rallies, but to at least drive through a couple times because it really is important for me as a mom to, even though he's three, to show him that this is what democracy looks like. This is what fighting for what's right looks like. And I want to just, I want to instill that in him from a really early age.

So if you're a parent that wants to involve your kids or feels like I can't get, you know, away from my kids, I don't have childcare to be a part of it. And I'm a little nervous about that, do that.

That is a big part of these rallies is having people to honk and give morale and Encouragement to the people that are standing there waving. So that is just as much being a part of the rally as standing there with a sign. And you can even put signs in your windows.

I've seen people like have, you know, the window paint that they write things on or have a flag. I've seen people on the opposite side trying to do the same.

But for the most part every, every rally that I've gone to, there's always, you know, the couple people that are going by and giving you thumbs down or flipping you off or driving really fast and making their trucks usually go, you know, fast and loud and spew all this exhaust and whatnot and it's just like, okay, like if that's the best that you can do, that's fine. But for the most part, like people are so encouraging. People really drive by, honk, everybody is smiling, laughing, having fun.

You get to turn to your neighbor, talk to each other and really just again be in community with other people that are fighting for democracy. We may not all this think exactly the same on all the issues. The one thing that I don't compromise on is human rights.

Like we are not negotiating on whether or not somebody is like viable to have rights. We are all divine human beings. We all deserve the same rights no matter what country you live in.

That is my non negotiable, but all the rest of the we can hash out in the end. I definitely have very strong opinions about things and it's hard to even accept that for myself. But this is about fighting for democracy.

This is about fighting for a country to still have free speech, to still have a right to do and be who you want to be and do the things that you want to do. And I think that's incredibly important for us to keep fighting for. So I hope you find something near you and I will see you there.