No Kings Day at freeway overpass in Berkeley June 14 2025

No Kings Day in Berkeley
--June 14, 2025


by Daniel Borgström

Saturday, June 14th was the day of Trump's huge self-honoring birthday party and military parade in DC, while across the country some two thousand "No King's Day" protests were scheduled. Virginia and I attended the event in Berkeley, held on an overpass above Highway I-80. It's a foot bridge for bicycles and pedestrians that runs parallel to University Avenue. People sometimes hang banners there over the freeway.

Coming from the east, the path to get there took us around the end of Aquatic Park, a lagoon which features small boats and kayaks for rent. This afternoon a flock of geese were swimming blissfully, quite unconcerned about the erratic monster in the White House. A long-legged egret waded near the shore. The day was sunny and warm.

We got there about 1:30 p.m., and as we approached we saw the overpass and the walkway leading up to it were packed full of people. A couple thousand? People were constantly coming and going, some leaving and others arriving.

We headed up the ramp and squeezed our way onto the crowded bridge. There were no speakers at this rally; it was a massive banner-hanging event. People on all sides of us were carrying home-made signs expressing anger at Trump, others were waving US flags, many upside down -- the distress signal. Someone had a Mexican flag, and some held Palestinian flags, a few had brought "whole-earth" flags. We have one of those -- a "whole-earth" flag -- we should've brought it. Some were wearing keffiyehs. I wore one that a friend had given me shortly after the Gaza genocide began.

Down below us on the freeway, there was a steady stream of slowish traffic, many lanes wide, all moving along at something like 40 mph. As they drove along under us, they were honking their approval of our rally. It was just solid, constant, ongoing, non-stop honking. "Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!" all the time we were there, from the time we arrived till the time we left. People often waved from their cars, and we waved back.

The atmosphere was that of patriotic holiday, an anti-Trump event in memory of the tradition that here in America we don't want to be governed by kings -- though we now seem to have one, Donald the First. Of course the problem isn't just Trump, the very existence of his regime is a symptom of something deeply amiss in our country.

We later heard that an estimated five million people participated in "No Kings Day" rallies in over two thousand cities across the country that day -- June 14, 2025.


DANIEL BORGSTRÖM
Ex-Marine Against the Wars
Veterans for Peace, East Bay Chapter 162