No Kings Day Rally Draws over 260 Demonstrators

HARDWICK – A No Kings Day rally Saturday in Hardwick organized by the Hardwick Indivisible group drew over 260 people who joined over 1,500 similar rallies throughout Vermont and the United States.

Organizer Carlotta Hayes said, “I am so proud of the team that worked together to produce this event in Hardwick today. I’m impressed by the number of protesters who kept arriving in waves, ‘peaceful, patriotic and pissed off,’ as Rachel Cole put it.”

The rally began soon after the scheduled 11:30 a.m. time with Hayes leading the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance as the crowd waved American flags or mostly handmade signs.

Vermont House Rep. Leanna Harple gave a speech in which she said, “. . . I came here today straight from the high school graduation just up the hill. Just a few hours ago, we sent nearly 50 graduates out into the world; my students. Your children. We’ve spent years loving them, teaching them, helping them build dreams.

“We owe our children a country that is worth inheriting,” she said. “We owe them more than a shrug and a ‘that’s just how things are now.’”

Jude Elford then shared her heartfelt thoughts about the significance of the day in asserting the power of the people to protect those who need protection. “I don’t want to be known as coming from a country in which senators are tackled for questioning the administration’s heads of departments.”

“My grandparents came here where free speech is valued,” she said. “We will not be silent in the face of illegal deportations,” and “I am here today because women desire to have choice over their own bodies,” she concluded

Grace Hurley then led chants and songs to the drumming of Jerry Schneider from Hardwick and Woodbury’s Ellie Hayes. One of them was, “We are the people. We want the government, elected by and for the people.”

Mary Gagnon, from Hardwick, led in a singing chant of “Power to the people.”

Someone in the crowd remarked that they had joined protests over 40 years ago to make the country a better and safer place for everyone, but in just a few short months, the present administration has worked to remove many of the guardrails put in place to restrict the power of the President and provide for the equal protections of not just citizens, but visitors and those from other countries working on farms, in service industries and construction.

Woodbury resident and Californian Florence Folk said in speaking of the reason for the rally, “It’s the beginning.”

Greensboro’s Erika Karp said she was there to support No Kings Day because “it gives Hardwick and the whole state something to keep moving onward for.”

Scott Luscombe joined from Hyde Park, saying he was there to “fight fascists.”

Many cars passing through town honked and waved in support of the rally, with some even waving signs out of windows and sunroofs. One truck sported a tailgate marked, “No Kings Day.”

Some, however, took the opportunity to express their displeasure with the rally, mostly making faces or the thumbs down sign, though a few squealed their tires and one truck sported large American and Trump flags in the bed, with writing on the passenger side window that read, “Happy Birthday Mr. Trump” in white, with a red heart.

A child in the crowd carried a sign that read, “No Kings, More Queens” and said it meant we should treat each other the same way. Another sign that drew several comments from the crowd read, “Celebrate Migration, ABOLISH ICE.”

Hardwick Police Officer Dan Brunelle was walking among the crowd and speaking with rally goers. As he stood near Hardwick Select Board Chair Erik Remick, who was seated on the Hardwick Inn’s porch, Brunelle said people have a first amendment right to assemble peacefully and speak their minds.

Organizers, who said they expected perhaps 60 people, were amazed to see the crowd on both sides of the street stretching from in front of the Hardwick Inn and the Clip Joint across from it, all the way up South Main Street to the Village Restaurant and Positive Pie. They walked through the crowd wearing orange vests asking attendees to leave room for those passing by on the sidewalk and to stay clear of crosswalks.

Brunelle said he’d been suggesting to those he talked with that food trucks would have been a nice addition to the event.

Later, on the sidewalk by Front Seat Coffee, John Brabant remarked, “The only King we need is MLK (Martin Luther King)” as he walked with his dogs Daisy and Georgie, who he said were “border collies for an open border.”

Some people joined the rally after attending a breakfast and coffee event with Senator Bernie Sanders at Oxbow Park in Morrisville, before he took a walk on the rail trail. They said Sanders was relaxed and offered a few friendly comments, seeming mostly to want to join with Vermonters in building community as he had at the recent Hardwick dance he held.

Those coming from Morrisville said they passed a small gathering of about 10 people in Wolcott waving signs and flags in solidarity with events elsewhere.

Craftsbury’s Anne Hanson visited a No Kings Day rally in Barton where she estimated there were 300 people gathered, then another with 400 people in Newport.

Hayes said, “On this historic, nationwide No Kings Day, people from Hardwick and neighboring towns gathered to assert the classic American values associated with Flag Day: honor, courage, selfless service and loyalty, as well as our history as a rule by ‘We The People’ crafted to replace a royal dictatorship,” she said. Adding, “To quote an anthem composed especially for this No Kings celebration “’No Man Owns the USA!’”

Editor’s note: A minor typographical error was corrected soon after this piece was published.