No Kings This Saturday

Or perhaps I should say “this Shabbat.”

I don’t like to get in a car on the Sabbath. It’s contrary to my understanding of the halacha, Jewish law, and I try to make as few exceptions as possible. The idea here is to stay close to home, and nurture our experience of intimacy and interiority. A car can make a hash of that. More on all of this in an upcoming post.

The No Kings protest was an exception this summer, and I would be willing to go that route again. We are at a tipping point like no other I have known in my life, and the moment requires that we hold hands together. If it means that I travel to be with my people, that is a ritual price that I’m ready to pay. The nearest protest this summer was downtown, out of reach for a tolerable walk. I went anyway and chanted my heart out.

Miraculously, the upcoming protest this Saturday afternoon will be just a few short blocks from our house. It’s down the street from Spoke House Bicycles, on 21st Street between Boston and Boulder. The precise location is Dream Keepers Park, where a million Tulsans will be gathering in protest. Look for me in a black baseball cap, right after services at Congregation B’nai Emunah. I’ll walk this time, but I would have gone anywhere. We have arrived at a moment of blooming authoritarianism, and I want to make certain that I am present and accounted for.

I know, of course, that protests are futile. Sauron has made it abundantly clear that he rejects the considerations of shame and disapproval. At no point in his presidency has he been above water, but he furthers the aims of Project 2025 with the zealous heedlessness of a true believer. The conundrum is that he craves certain measures of approval with the thirsty eagerness of high school prom king. A Nobel Prize for being the Prince of Peace in the Mideast would check all the boxes on his personal bucket list. But he is immune to the pressure of in-the-street activism. If it gets uncomfortable, he’ll sic the military on the protesters.

I’m going instead to strengthen myself, to fill my cup with the liquor of solidarity and drink in the reassurance of like-minded conviction. I want to see people who are just like me and feel the urgent call to oppose this administration. America is already coming apart. Comey and James and Boulton already know that there are no limits to Sauron’s vengeance. He will mess with their lives whether he wins or loses, gutting the Department of Injustice in the process, until it is the twin of the Department of War. All of us are going to be faced with the battle of our lives. If we are not strong enough to oppose these obscenities, our children’s children will still be paying the price.

So as you look for me, I will be looking for you. The date is Saturday (Shabbat), October 18. The time is noon to 2:00 p.m. and the place is Dream Keepers Park near 21st and Boston. If you’ve ever wondered what you could do, this is the kind of thing that has your name on it. Assuming a day of Oklahoma weather, all you have to do is to show up with enough sunscreen.