2025: Our Year of Activism and Protest
I’m so proud of our seniors, so many of whom showed up in the streets in front of the courthouse and elsewhere to participate in No Kings protests in 2025. We weren’t alone, but many of us were gray-haired and carried wonderful signs protesting the current political trends and violations of the rule of law.
It started with 3 million or so; the next protest drew over 5 million, and the last one, in October, had over 7 million participants nationally, an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 in Eureka.
Then 60% of us voted to authorize a temporary congressional redistricting in California for the 2026 election to offset Republican gerrymandering in Texas, one of several attempts by the president to rig the 2026 election.
There have been many articles in Senior News and other publications promoting the rule of law and celebrating our constitutional heritage and rights: freedom of speech, assembly and religion. This is another form of activism.
Others have been writing to our elected lawmakers (local, state and federal) and sending postcards. Some have donated to organizations such as the ACLU and Public Citizen, which have sued over constitutional overreach and abuses of law.
Yet others help solve local problems caused by federal funding cuts by supporting food banks, our local public radio stations and KEET TV, Arcata House and others.
I recently presented an OLLI Brown Bag lunch talk titled “The State of Our Union,” where I described the intentional division of power among the three branches of the federal government. I condemned all three branches for their failures to carry out their constitutionally specified powers as intended, resulting in the current imbalance and increased movement toward authoritarianism. (To access the talk, go to Humboldt.edu/Olli, click on “Events” and go to the video archives, or email me and I’ll send you the PowerPoint presentation.)
In the past, many of us have participated in protests for civil and women’s rights, so this activism is part of our history and heritage. We know it works. Will we continue along this path to save our republican form of government? I hope so. Don’t let fear get in the way.
We each can do our part. Please do. We have a unique government in the world where power was given to the people. We must use it or lose it. As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “We have a republic, if we can keep it.”
Jane Woodward is a writer and social advocate in Arcata. Email: janepwoodward@aol.com.
