2025 Life Logs, Day 283: Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
Date: Friday, October 10, 2025
Weather: Sunny and Still Chilly; High Temp 50 Low 49 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
The good news first. I went to a Falmouth High School soccer game late this afternoon that they won 2-0 and Jonah made one of those two goals. Go, Jonah, #14!
It was an away game and by the time we got back to Falmouth it was almost 7 pm. Heather and Jed stayed home to prepare dinner for me and two of Jonah’s best friends and soccer team members and their families. Jean Luc’s parents brought their brand new puppy, Lola, with them tonight. What a sweetie! So, that’s the normal, happy news.
Now for the dark side. It is Friday, October 10, 2025, and I mark that date because it is a date when something so unbelievable happened that I do not want to ever forget it. I am called Oma by my grandkids. I was called Mrs. Handley by the many students I had in my 30 years as an educator. Today I was called a paid protester, a person who hates America, an antifa person, and a person who is pro Hamas by Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He, along with some other Republicans who obviously read ‘the memo’, said this. Since they all said the same thing, I am assuming there must have been some sort of directive. I am calling that ‘the memo’. I have no evidence that there was such a directive, but I find it interesting that a number of influential people came forth on the same day, all saying the same thing without some directive.
Bear with me while I explain. A national organization that I belong to, Indivisible, along with many other groups, have been planning a nationwide protest for weeks. It is called NO KINGS II. NO KINGS I happened in mid-June and more than five million peaceful Americans protested to make it clear we love our democracy and never, ever want to see a King in the United States of America. We already fought and won that revolution, giving birth to this great nation. I did not hear of any incidents of violence during NO KINGS I anywhere in this country. We protested with determination, but also with joy, singing and dancing and listening to speeches about what we love about the US of A. On October 18, we are planning the NO KINGS II protest. For weeks now, Indivisible, along with other organizations, have been offering safety and security and de-escalation trainings to make sure we know how to deal with situations if we are challenged. Indivisible was founded in 2016 and has always stood for peaceful protests, a right guaranteed to all Americans by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Our First Amendment protects the freedoms of speech and assembly.
So, when I read that this morning, October 10, 2025 (I really want to remember this date.), that Mike Johnson said the No Kings protest scheduled for October 18 is being planned as a “hate America rally”, I was a bit confused. His statement would be funny if the stakes were not so serious. But outright lying about this is serious. I don’t know any person that does not have some problem with something the US government has done during their lifetime, but “hate” is not the same as not agreeing with something or offering constructive criticism. Johnson went on to say that these same people who are planning NO KINGS, people just like me, are paid protesters (I wish!), and that we will draw “the pro Hamas wing” and “the antifa people.” Does protesting against starving an entire population of people in Gaza or the killing of thousands of children in 24 months of war mean that that we are pro Hamas? The answer is absolutely not. Does protesting in defense of democracy when a fascist regime is trying to take over my country mean I am an antifa person? I don’t think so. What is antifa anyway? Oh, it just means anti-fascist? I naively thought all people who love America are anti-fascist. You might ask, “What is a fascist anyway?” AI tells me it is a person who has a political ideology or belongs to a movement that focuses on extreme nationalism, authoritarianism, and suppresses opposition. People like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.
I will be out there for NO KINGS II on Saturday, October 18, standing strong for all the good and beautiful of the democratic way of life I have known and loved for my 78 years on this planet … until now. I hope you will be out there with me.
PS As I am sitting here writing this, I have the TV on and just heard Donald Trump talking about the ‘paid protesters’ in Portland, saying he will go after those funding terrorist groups like this. He rambled on that they have to have funding because their signs are made from “very expensive paper” and the “beautiful” white sticks that they use to hold their signs all look the same and therefore, must be purchased for them. Then he called them anarchists. Unbelievable. The signs I hold up at rallies are made by me in my dining room with ‘expensive’ paper I buy at Staples with my own money and my ‘beautiful’ white sticks are scavenged from my son-in-law’s garage workshop. Or sometimes they are paint stirring sticks I get for free from hardware stores. And I made sure they know how I am going to use the stirring sticks. This makes me an anarchist?
