Hundreds at Norwood No Kings

A couple hundred residents came out to the corner of Nahatan Street and Washington Street in Norwood last Saturday to participate in the third No Kings Protest.

The protest, held nationwide in more than 3,300 different locations, was in protest to U.S. President Donald Trump, who many feel will try to run for a third term, as well as flouting democratic norms and rules in office resulting in a host of lawsuits – https://gvimes.link/unlawful

According to No Kings – https://www.nokings.org – the protests are designed to “to make it clear that America rejects the regime’s brutality at home and abroad.”

Norwood’s event echoed these sentiments.

“I came out for the same reason I did in October, because it’s getting worse, not better,” said resident Donna Sullivan (no relation). “And today, on the news the scuttlebutt on the TV is now that he (Trump) is getting ‘bored’ with the Iran conflict, as predicted. And he wants $200 billion more, even when we’re spending something like $500 million or a billion dollars a day? I just think it’s nuts.”

“I’ll tell you what I think,” said resident Robert Laws. “He is two short of three. He’s out of his mind. He’s a character all right. I don’t know if he ever would have got in if he didn’t lie his head off in the election.”

Sullivan said she was proud to see Norwood’s big turnout.

“I knew from last time it’d be a good turnout, and now we’re seeing Boston’s getting pretty full now too,” she said. “But the thing is I was reading yesterday and a woman said, ‘If you don’t think your presence is needed at a No Kings rally, then you’re not watching or paying attention. Because he, Trump, might not care, but every Republican does. Every Democrat does. Every politician does.”

Resident Barbara Laws said she disagreed.

“Don’t kid yourself,” she said. “Trump’s scared right now. But a lot of stuff doesn’t come on the news.”

Residents Maria and Ame Hrabowski said they came to the last two events in Norwood. Maria said she was tired but hopeful. She said she was a little underwhelmed when she arrived, but at the time of this interview, it was still four minutes before the event officially started.

“I didn’t think it would be as well-attended as the last one, because now they have many in the neighboring towns, like Canton, Walpole, Sharon and Dedham,” she said. “The people are, oof, exhausted. But still, I admire everybody who came out.”

Ame said they were surprised that there was so many people before the start of the event.

“The clocks are ringing out 1 p.m.” they said.

Maria said she was concerned that local politicians, especially those in the legislature, don’t ever seem to make their way to these events.

“Where are our elected representatives?” she said. “I called them (State Rep. John) Rogers and (State Sen. Michael) Rush to see if they attended but nobody called me back.”

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Resident Alex DeSilva came out with his yard’s American Flag for the protest.

“I can’t just do nothing,” he said. “There is so much happening with what ICE is doing, ignoring Congress, the theft, everything about Donald Trump is a threat to democracy and our rights,” he said. “But I am hopeful, especially given how cold it is today, that we have a good turnout. Crowds like this allow people to meet up, get together, and do more focused work beyond the protest and serve a useful purpose.”

This was resident Ed’s first protest.

“I want to do my part for my first protest so far,” he said. “I want to see what it’s about and just not be silent. It’s a good thing here. I am not for anything going on right now and I figured, being silent is compliance, so I knew I needed to be here.”

Three residents who asked not to be identified said they felt it was a good sign to see the Town come together like this.

“I’ve always wanted to go to these, but being disabled? It’s a little difficult and having such a local event is very helpful,” they said. “It’s nice the smaller towns are able to put these on and get a crowd this large. I also need to go to these things once in a while, just to feel like I’m sane and there are other people who think like we do, and it’s just a lot less lonely when you come to these. That helps. Plus, the signs here are hilarious.”

Progress Norwood hosted the local event. For more information on the group, go to https://gvimes.link/prognorwood