Folks who know this isn’t right. And they have your back.

Today was No Kings protest day. Evanston folks showed up, once again.

What I saw and heard at this event was a little different from past protests. Not that the speeches or the signs were different, But what I personally saw when I looked out at the 1000+ folks gathered in Fountain Square, and what I paid attention to.

Two moments stood out for me. Both were when speakers each invoked a memorable image that captured a moment.

One speaker recalled the photo of a mother, shoes off, holding them in her hands to run faster, running toward a Minnesota elementary school after a school shooting, clearly in a panic not knowing the status of her child. The other speaker called out seeing a video of an Evanston woman, a senior citizen, running across the neighborhood street to confront ICE officers taking someone into custody.

What ties these two together for me is one phrase: This isn’t right.

And it’s the one thing, I think, that connects all of the folks at Fountain Square.

As a political event, we join together with different interests and issues and favorite policies and solutions that lean progressive. But I just get this sense that the core motivation underneath it all is this deep recognition that this isn’t right.

It isn’t right that our children and grandchildren must deal with school violence. It isn’t right that our neighbors are kidnapped by thugs posing under the guise of a national police force. And so much more.

No. Just, NO.

And so we act. We run. We run to the school to find our loved ones and deal with whatever danger emerges. We run to help our neighbors and confront the brutality of ICE. We act selflessly and without any preconceived political script.

These moments stood out for me because of the opportunity I’ve had to see some of these same folks working behind the scenes on the community issues we face. For me, it’s environmental justice (EJ). The folks who come to the group meetings and civic events bring a range of interests. Climate change, civil rights, food insecurity, housing, jobs, transportation, etc.

But I sense one thing about each of them: They would run to anyone’s aid in the face of something that they recognize just isn’t right. They would have your back. Without question.

Postscript: This story in the Evanston Roundtable covers the event, the speakers and the richness of community participants.

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Photos by me.