No Kings was food for my soul

I'm still living in the backwash of what we did on Saturday. NO KINGS was a fine denunciation of the MAGA regime's atrocities against immigrants, against workers, against truth, against our democracy. But it was also a gushing release of emotions that the Trump emergency constrains. We risk missing out on feeling some of what keeps us human, perhaps because we can't afford to bare or bear those feelings in this awful time.

So on Saturday, some of us expressed emotions which living in Trump's America has repressed.

That's long been a San Francisco sentiment. This city knows that.

We're not asking for a life of emotional ease.

Though it hurts, we don't give in.

We make the choice to celebrate what matters, even if we dress as clowns to do it.

We trust we can get to the other side ... most of us anyway. Yes! 

Libertarian rule-of-law guy Radley Balko is not at all an habitual protester. Often, more a cranky critic. But he found emotional sustenance in Saturday's marches.   

What I saw at Saturday’s protest was a celebration of the values that truly make us great, even as we haven’t always lived up to them — the rule of law, constitutionalism, skepticism of power, empathy and compassion, civil liberties, and — yes — diversity. ...

If I had to sum up my own feelings about the protest in Nashville in a word, I’d go with nourishing. It felt good. It felt good to stand with neighbors who understand what we’re up against.