“What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?” -Thomas Jefferson

10/17/2025 – Before.

As of typing this first sentence onto this page, I have not yet attended what is planned to be one of the biggest nation-wide protests ever. I have yet to dig out my jumbo red Sharpie; I have yet to wipe clean a sign I have written angry words on multiple times before; I have yet to witness the history I know is bound to be made at this event, and I have an empty mind. 

I will prepare tonight to go tomorrow. My friends, outlawed by their parents to go on account of the perceived danger, stay at home and think revolutionary thoughts. Thinking is not enough. I doubt that writing in perfect red letters and yelling for something better is either, but I must scream with the voice I was given for the rights I deserve. I am not afraid for a couple of reasons: First, I have protested on these streets before and, second, I have hated dystopian narratives in novels, textbooks, and fantasies all the same. Secondly, I am grateful to live somewhere I do not expect my life to be in danger tomorrow. I do not imagine rubber bullets flying at my head, and I do not look into my future and see police beating my mother blue. This isn’t a border city, or even a particularly diverse one. 

I write the beginning of this story now, not knowing how it will end or if it will even be worth finishing. I will write another piece as an alternative, a factual, news-based recap of the events in the least biased tone I can muster. I can not bear the idea of not using my voice, so tomorrow, that is what I will do. 

10/18/2025 – After.

I sit now, warm again and hopeful. What I saw today at the protest astounded me. I have gone to previous ones, one of which was the first No Kings Day. There, about 3,000 bodies (as estimated by organizers) lined the grasses of Lincoln park. This morning, at least double that spanned Deering Oaks in a display of the most patriotic action you can do by our founding fathers’ standards: protest. 

When I arrived with my family and friends, I saw the sheer number of people that had decided it was time to fight for our rights and for our country. There was no screaming, no violence, only witty signs and blow-up lobster costumes. I saw people taking photos with older women dressed as the statue of liberty, people dancing and singing. It was love for each other, for the potential of what this event could create. It was hope. It probably won’t be enough, but simply going out and standing in a park and showing others they are not alone is still something. 

There were costumes, laughter, teenagers making speeches, and a general air of pride between the people. I did not witness any violence, nor have I yet read any news stories of violence in Portland. I will fall asleep tonight still grateful I live in a state where a protest this size is not met with the violent and brutal response I have already read about from prior protests elsewhere. Tonight, I will fall asleep happy that even as our constitution is under siege, I remain courageous enough to exercise the constitutional right to assembly I still have. 

I am filled with my own personal sense of pride knowing that over 2,600 separate protests were held nationwide today, and this has already been recognized as the largest American protest against a president in history. The history we aimed for was hit dead on, and with numbers like these, the revolution is imminent.

“Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom—and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech” -Benjamin Franklin