Photos by JC Martin
WESTPORT–A couple of thousand people gathered on Saturday to rally against the imperial presidency of Donald J. Trump.
Elected officials and volunteers addressed the crowd, which was estimated at 1,500 to 2,000. Local attorney and mediator Vicki Volper organized the rally with Pamela Clark.
Organizers on Friday set up a stage near the northwestern edge of Jesup Green. The weekly rally on the Ruth Steinkraus Memorial Bridge began around 11 a.m., and as noon approached, hundreds of No Kings rally-goers met on the bridge.
The No Kings rally started around noon.
Several elected officials gave short speeches: Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Congressman Jim Himes and Governor Ned Lamont.
Lamont said, “We’ve worked every day to expand rights for people, expand rights to make sure that nobody is left behind, make sure we look out for each other, care for each other, love for each other, and now we have a President of the United States who is dividing us, taking away of those rights.”
Volper told Westport Journal after the rally that she “Had the additional goal of motivating people to do more than just go to rallies – to take additional meaningful actions. Happily dozens of people visited the tables we set up on the green yesterday and signed up as volunteers to help Stamford Norwalk United with Immigrants (SNUI), Reproductive Equity Now (REN) and to join ReSisters, a Connecticut based pro-democracy activist group. It was a good day for democracy.”
Organizers and volunteers speaking included Vicki Volper, Darcy Hicks, Lynda Sorenson (SNUI) and Becky Martin (REN).
Music was provided by The Five O’Clocks, Suzanne Sheridan, Bill Dempsey and singer Maggie Meath.
I wonder why the king’s guards did not swoop in and carry them off to a dungeon where they could await their fate without trials. Every time these fools have their stupid demonstrations, they prove. once again, that they live in a free country in which they can say vile defamatory things against the administration with absolutely no consequences whatsoever.
I agree that this shows the extent of free speech in this country- its a reminder of how much freedom people have to express themselves, even when opinions differ strongly.