No Kings Day, June 14, 2025
Over 700 people from kids to grandmothers braved the rain for the Chagrin Falls No Kings rally in Riverside Park at 10 am this morning. Organizer Lisa Mead played MC, introducing songs, speakers, and protest chants. Sheila Freimark led off with the Star-Spangled Banner, followed later with classic protest songs such as "This Land Is Your Land" and "If I Had a Hammer."
Sharon Hawkes from Right to Read Ohio spoke about the challenges libraries are facing, including the Ohio budget mandate to hide all materials "related to sexual orientation or gender identity or expression" from minors. "It's unconstitutional, and they know it," she said. She encouraged everyone to stop Trump from shuttering the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and to tell Governor DeWine to veto the censorship mandate.
Former Ohio Supreme Court Justice William O'Neill equated the use of the National Guard in California with what happened at Kent State in 1970. "That's what happens when you put kids with guns in front of kids with passion," he said. He has been so disappointed that US Representative Dave Joyce voted to "take money from the poor, the libraries, the kids" through Medicaid and other cuts that he declared his intention to come out of retirement and run for US Representative against Joyce. He said, "We've got to stop it."
It was a soggy but optimistic morning!
