The United States Constitution guarantees the right for Americans to peaceably assemble to express viewpoints, promote new ideas and defend their rights.
On Oct. 18, South Carolinians who are irritated, frustrated, vexed and mad at how the Trump administration is continually piercing, broaching, challenging and tampering with individual and national liberties have a chance to peacefully protest at a statewide rally at the Statehouse.
More than 4,000 people from across the state are expected.
“The NoKings [national] organizers have called on everyone organizing to go to each state capitol to show how large the movement has gotten and how much resistance is out there,” said Indivisible Charleston organizer Kristy Kinney. “This is NoKings 2.0 and it’s going to be bigger and better. And then we’ll march to the governor’s mansion to bring grievances to his doorstep.”
There’s certainly a lot to protest, from the nonsense of the federal government shutdown and increasing authoritarianism by immigration officials to National Guardsmen being deployed in “Democratic” cities and continual degradation of the rule of law. And then there’s the big cuts in vital medical research to keep America healthy, defunding public broadcasting, the breakdown of environmental regulation, threats to world-class educational institutions and more.
“We’re trying to save our democracy — the very democratic institutions that we’ve all grown up to depend on, such as the balance of power and the checks and balances between the government branches,” Kinney said. “They are kidnapping American citizens out of their homes, separating children from their mothers and rounding them up. Every right you can think of is being threatened now.”
If you don’t want to go all the way to Columbia to protest, you might consider two smaller rallies in North Charleston and Summerville.
One place you should probably skip is a supposedly scheduled rally at Hampton Park — even though it’s listed on the NoKings.org website. But there won’t be one, Kinney said.
Charleston police say no permit has been issued for an Oct. 18 protest at Hampton Park similar to one in June when more than 1,000 people turned out for Indivisible Charleston’s rally.
Organizers believe someone is trying to throw a wrench in this month’s protests by steering activists to a place where nothing will happen. Seems that just about anyone can register for a rally. So in South Carolina, could it be that someone engaged in a little nasty politics to try to confuse anti-Trump activists? Say it ain’t so. (NoKings.org provides no contact information or details for more information.)
We encourage you to join together in peace to raise your voices about the inadequacies and threats that the Trump administration is making to weaken the American experiment in democracy.
But if you decide to protest in Columbia, Summerville or North Charleston, make sure you are respectful and peaceful. Don’t get sucked into confrontations with counter-protesters. Don’t antagonize law enforcement officials who should be there to protect demonstrators as well as anyone there to protest them.
Be calm, drink in democracy and resist attempts to diffuse your rights and liberty.
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