Tag: Boston

Day of Peaceful Protest

Commentary by Jerry Lanson

In my community, Falmouth, Massachusetts, upwards of 1,000 people packed the Village Green, spilling across the street in front of the Congregational Church on one side and the Episcopal Church on the other.

Rather than the dark gathering of terrorist sympathizers and criminal agitators depicted in advance by White House officials and numerous GOP congressmen, the protestors were retirees and families, neighbors and acquaintances, enjoying a day peacefully and humorously with a bit of political theater.

As my granddaughter, who attended the huge Boston rally put it, “I really liked that people were excited and not angry.”  

In Falmouth, I saw one protester dressed as an orange man in striped prison garb and a woman dressed in green, crown and all, as the Statue of Liberty. There was song and speeches, laughter, chants and chitchat with friends.

From what I can tell, all across the country crowds collectively cast as “up to 7 million” massed in similar ways, peacefully, sometimes humorously and, judging from photos and videos, with gusto.

Much of the day’s fun came from finding creative signs.  “No Crown for the Clown,” read one, complete with a hand-painted president trussed up for the circus. Others were more serious, such as, “When cruelty becomes normal, compassion looks radical.”

I’ll leave you with two thoughts:

1.) The demonizing of the great American tradition of peaceful protest has to stop.

That demonizing was coordinated and unrelenting in the weeks leading up to No King II and its purpose was to frighten. That backfired badly.

2.) Even those of you who still admire Donald Trump should look closely at the activities of his growing private paramilitary force. Increasingly, they are operating outside the law.

I think both were big factors boosting turnout Saturday, along with lots more, from the erosion of public health and medical insurance to the renewed efforts to suppress free speech and fire public servants too often for no other reason than upholding the law.

If No Kings seemed celebratory it also was serious. Many people in this country are deeply concerned by the erosion of democratic norms. There’s always room for vigorous debate on economic issues or social issues. People disagree. But it’s not possible to split the difference on freedom.

Lanson’s SUBSTACK is From the Grassroots.

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More commentary on Saturday’s No Kings protests -- The No Kings protest is going to look like a country-wide furry convention, which will make it much harder for King Trump to have his Kent State moment. Attendees need to hold the line on non-violent protests because Trump is itching to start shooting. Then again, maybe if he starts killing us, we'll learn to love him. –KE Bell

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MONDAY 10/20/25

…meanwhile…

(MON 9/12/22)

Ukrainian Momentum: Ukrainian troops on Saturday recaptured the eastern city of Izium, a strategically important railway hub that Russian troops have held since last spring, The New York Times reported Sunday. Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, confirmed on CBS News that her country has pushed fleeing Russian troops out of 1,200 square miles of the northeast region of Kharkiv in the last eight days, more than the invading forces had captured since April. 

“We have to win, and this counter-offensive shows we can win,” Marakova told CBS’ Face the Nation. She agreed with military assessments that Ukrainian forces can push Russia back to the borders before the end of the year “because of the resolve of the armed forces.”

•••

Better Call Saul: From Sunday’s New York Times’ story about myriad Trump lawyers who have to lawyer-up themselves after working for the former president, this “dark joke”: “MAGA actually stands for ‘making attorneys get attorneys.’”

•••

THIS WEEK ...

The White House: President Biden visits Boston Monday, where he will deliver remarks on Bipartisan Infrastructure already underway and “tangible results for communities and the country.” Biden announces his “Cancer Moonshot” goal of finding a cure, to be held at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum on the 60th anniversary of President Kennedy’s announcement of his goal to put an American on the moon before the end of the 1960s.

On Tuesday Biden visits the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

On Saturday the president and Jill Biden travel to the United Kingdom for Queen Elizabeth II's funeral, to be held next Monday.

Congress: The Senate is in session Monday, with both chambers in session Tuesday through Friday.

Inflation Rate: The Labor Department publishes the August Consumer Price Index Tuesday. Expectations are the rate will fall somewhat from the annual rate reported for July of 8.5%, which itself decreased from June's annual rate of 9.1%.

--TL

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Of Time, Bells & Meaning

By Stephen Macaulay

In 1787 Paul Revere opened a bell foundry in Boston. In addition to things like copper spikes and bolts that were used for shipbuilding, Revere cast his first bell in 1792. One of them was produced for the USS Constitution. During the War of 1812, the bell was put out of commission by a British ship, HMS Guerriere.

(For those of you who have forgotten their American history classes, the War of 1812 pitted the U.S. against the United Kingdom, which would seem unthinkable today as the U.K. is now one of our closest allies—well, given the way the current administration has treated our closest allies, maybe it isn’t so unthinkable. Anyway, during this war the U.K. and Native Americans were on the same side; the U.S. tried to get chunks of Canada; the Brits burned the White House. Again, much of this seems bizarre, but things were different 208 years ago. Hang on to that thought.)

While Revere’s bell foundry is somewhat obscure, it is worth noting that in 1787 the U.S. Constitution was signed.

According to the official White House website, “The founders also specified a process by which the Constitution may be amended, and since its ratification, the Constitution has been amended 27 times.”

Which is germane because it is clear from this that the founders didn’t think that what they had created was carved in stone tablets.

Even the White House understands that. Things change. Even words.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett has described herself as a “constitutional originalist” and that she takes a textualist approach to the law.

During the hearings for her appointment to the Supreme Court, Lindsay Graham, a former JAG lawyer (there is no evidence that he, like Harmon Rabb, suffers from night blindness, although he seems to be vexed by a tendency to behave as a presidential lickspittle), asked Judge Barrett what all that means in a way that could be understood.

She replied, "So in English, that means that I interpret the Constitution as a law, that I interpret its text as text, and I understand it to have the meaning that it had at the time people ratified it."

She added, "So that meaning doesn’t change over time and it’s not up to me to update it or infuse my own policy views into it."

“The meaning doesn’t change over time.”

Really? 

So the words as written in 1787 have the same meaning as they do today? Back when Paul Revere was casting bells?

Let’s look at Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3, which is important vis-à-vis the recent decision regarding the U.S. census as this is where taking the census every 10 years came from:

“Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.”

Note how there seems to be a randomized capitalization of words. Presumably were one to write that way on one a paper submitted to Judge Barrett when she was teaching they would have been in a World of Hurt because We don’t capitalize Nouns Nowadays. 

What’s more, there is the word “Persons” not “citizens” (or Citizens). There are Persons counted as fractions (or Fractions).

And meaning doesn’t change over time? 

Macaulay is a cultural commentator based in Detroit.

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