President Barack Obama at the funeral of the Reverend Jesse Jackson said: “Each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions, another setback to the idea of the rule of law, an offense to common decency. Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think were possible.”  

And now President Trump has unilaterally taken us to war with Iran, with no authorization from Congress, and no coherent plan for what comes next, or how to end this. Congress has once again abdicated its responsibility to rein in the President. 

Obama also said: “We are living in a time when it can be hard to hope.”  

Lincoln County Indivisible (LCI) believes the antidote to any sense of hopelessness is visible all across the U.S. in public protest. ‘We the People’ are reasserting the basic tenets of our democracy. 

On Saturday, on the approaches to the Newcastle/Damariscotta bridge, in miserable weather, LCI once again deployed its ‘Signs of Democracy’ in conjunction with the weekly community bridge action. These signs highlight positive and critical aspects of our democracy which are currently under threat. For example: ‘Free and Fair Elections’, ‘No Voter Intimidation’, ‘Respect for Election Results’, ‘No Pardons for Criminal Loyalists’, ‘No Corruption in Government’, ‘Due Process for Everyone’, ‘Freedom of Assembly’, ‘No Muzzling the Press’, ‘Protecting LGBTQ+ Rights’, and ‘Publishing the Epstein Files’. The final sign declares: ‘We Believe in Liberty and Justice for All’. 

Saturday was ‘National Science Day’. Other signs among the rally goers on the bridge highlighted the current undermining of science, especially with respect to Robert Kennedy Jr.’s assault on vaccines in the face of the widening measles outbreak, and the administration’s all-out assault on any science related to climate change in the face of ever intensifying storms, wildfires, and other climate-related disasters.

And then there is the estimated $2 billion being spent every day to destroy Iran. Signs read: ‘Fund Healthcare, Not Warfare’, and ‘Operation Epic Confusion’. They also expressed the belief that part of the motivation for the war is to divert attention from the Epstein files: ‘Operation Epstein Distraction’. 

The primary purpose of LCI and bridge rally participants is to send a message to passing vehicles and the public in general that together we will make it through these times. We will reassert the basic tenets of our democracy with renewed vigor. The support of a clear majority of those passing by, expressed with honking and thumbs up, sends its own message that hope is far from dead. 

For more information contact info@LCIMaine.org or call Nigel Calder: 401-215-5603.