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“Small-town America pushes back against authoritarianism” as Traverse, Leelanau Indivisible hold third No Kings national day of action

Traverse Indivisible and Leelanau Indivisible are teaming up to hold a third No Kings national day of action in Traverse City on Saturday, March 28, as millions gather nationwide to protest the Trump administration’s policies and politics, at home and around the world. Organizers say they expect as many as 7,000 people to march in Traverse City “as small-town America pushes back against authoritarianism.” In a city of 16,000 people, that would make No Kings Day one of the largest protests in Northern Michigan history. The march begins at 1 pm at F&M Park in downtown Traverse City. Click here to read our coverage in the Glen Arbor Sun of the impact of the Trump administration’s politics and policy on Northern Michigan communities.

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Bearing witness: ICE’s siege of Chicago

Katie Dunn, a resident of Glen Arbor and Chicago, witnessed and wrote about Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s siege of Chicago neighborhoods last month. Dunn volunteered outside a school in a Latino neighborhood to safely escort students home, joined a protest outside the Broadview detention center, and found hope and resolve at the No Kings rally in Grant Park, which drew more than 100,000 demonstrators on Oct. 18. “Recent reports of ICE sightings near the school had sent a chilling wave through these already marginalized Brown and Black communities,” she wrote. “Countless parents, gripped by the tangible fear of being detained or disappeared by ICE in the mere minutes it takes to get their kids home from school, had entrusted their children’s safe passage to older siblings or neighbors. The whole landscape felt entirely dystopian: ICE’s menacing presence in the neighborhood had transformed a routine school dismissal into a fraught daily ritual.”

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American flags, strawberry rhubarb crisp, but No Kings

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On Friday, June 13—the day before thousands of “No Kings” rallies attracted millions of demonstrators in cities and towns across the United States to oppose the Trump administration—a downstate woman sent a flurry of emails to the Leelanau County Sheriff’s Department as well as federal authorities including the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to alert them about alleged “domestic terrorism” in Leelanau County and a host of outlandish claims. Out of concern about “some bad actors and their weird crazy rhetoric about me,” Nancy Janulis, a Glen Arbor summer resident who organized a No Kings rally at the Glen Lake Narrows, contacted the Leelanau Sheriffs Department to provide event details. The mood that morning was upbeat, patriotic, and collaborative. As bikers raced along the south shores of the Glen Lakes toward the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb to complete the M22 Challenge, approximately 200 citizens stood on the sides of M-22 at the bridge holding flags and banners. Organizers Janulis and Linda Dewey had asked participants to “please stand in solidarity and join us on this nationwide day of peaceful affirmation of our right to due process, free speech and equal protection.” Leelanau Sheriff Mike Borkovich “had friendly conversations with the protesters, and he was upbeat and friendly with me,” said Janulis. “We visited about fishing and the cold lake temperatures this year. I’m happy he attended. We had no incidents at the rally.”

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