Faces of the Resistance: A Beautiful No Kings Day in the Neighborhood

There were bigger, more mediagenic No Kings protests than the 3/28 event in Alameda. But I'd already set the tone for my day by signing on with Live Oak Unitarian to prepare food for the homeless. And that tone matches my sense of the mindset in Alameda writ large. Call it determined niceness. So I stayed put in my genial hometown; in for a penny, in for a pound.

We gathered at noon at the steps of city hall, in summery weather, to register our objection to unhinged violence and kleptomania at home and abroad. Despite the grim context it felt like a festival. Mayor Ashcraft applauded the poetry and the music, and when she spoke, she urged us on in our efforts to defend democracy. One simple tactic she recommended was to vote — mail in ballots make it so easy, and you don't even need postage!

Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft

Her words are well received. Two of the reasons she's popular are that Alameda has been one of the few California cities to meet its commitment to build new housing, and that bike paths have been extended across the island (use them often). She also has some things in common with Zohran Mamdani. Both are Arab-Americans; both support human rights for Palestinians; and both receive significant Jewish support. When it was over, I asked the mayor about her overall sense of the event. She said she was happy to see so many people protesting constructively. 

Another person I talked to was Brian, who came wearing an NRA hat and carrying a big sign proclaiming "Sanctuary Cities Kill People." Not there to make friends evidently, and he told me that someone had said they wished he was dead. Hmmm. He seemed relaxed with the many protesters all around him, and chatted amiably with me about how he sees the world (per Brian, the NRA is the country's oldest civil rights organization). We exchanged emails and agreed to enliven each others Facebook pages with a little controversy, provided there's no doxxing, no dark threats.

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The homeless meal was at the warming shelter run by Christ Episcopal Church on Santa Clara and Grand. For the five coldest months of the year they coordinate meals every day, and provide laundry and showers once a week. The have around 25 beds, and when those are filled the homeless are directed to shelters in Oakland. No one could tell me what happened to the clientele during the 7 warmer months, or whether there was an established path to self-sufficiency.

Homeless Man with Social
Justice coordinator

We Unitarians served a lavish spread. After everyone had first and seconds, we filled our own plates and joined the homeless at their tables. Someone at my table wore a Raiders cap, and the conversation about why that team was perennially awful; and about the prevalence of head injuries in the NFL. If all you had to go on was a transcript of the conversation, you would not have known that these people were at the bottom rung of the Northern California social ladder. Maybe someday we'll see them as fully human.