No Kings #2: From A Wheelchair

“No Kings #2”: From A Wheelchair

“No Kings #2”: From A Wheelchair

Editor: So, until the next protest, please vote in every election, write your opinion and send it to the local newspaper, call your law makers, light up the switchboards, and donate-donate-donate, we need to keep Trump and the MAGA’s feet to the fire, there are “NO KINGS” here.

 

By David L. Shadrick

No King’s #2

Yeah, that’s a picture of the real me. On October 18th, 2025, there was a “No Kings” protest in deep red Grants Pass, Oregon. I along with my neighbors joined the 7 million plus Americans who hit the streets to demonstrate against Donald Trump and the implementation of the Project 2025 agenda in the No Kings Protest #2. I was stunned, even in red butt GP there were at least 2,000 angry anti-Trump folks lining 6th Ave in front of the Josephine County Courthouse and several blocks in either direction on both sides of the street. Holy Shit! I mean, Whoopeee!

Targeted

I had barely assumed my place facing 6th Ave when trouble headed my way. Once again I was targeted by the MAGA crowd. The first one to approach me was a woman in her mid-thirties. She was quite agitated, breathing fast and hard. Literally this woman had her nose within a centimeter of my nose, her waving index finger brushed my cheek. Her speech was rapid and confused and her demeanor was quite threatening. In fact, several of my buddies recognized I was about to get punched in the face and they quickly surrounded my wheelchair and told her to move on. She hesitated, but only for a few seconds; before she realized there were now 10 people there supporting me, and the “No Kings Day.” It was clear that the woman was off her psych meds or she needed to see a doc and get her dosing increased because she obviously needed something to help her out mentally, because she was having some serious hallucinations.

My Faithful Sign

So after the crazy lady was sent down the street I held my ground and sat on my chosen section of sidewalk in my wheelchair holding my faithful “8647”  sign. The horns were honking and I lifted up the sign and waved it in the air above my head. The folks in the cars were yelling positive comments when suddenly a little white car slows down and stops in front of me and the driver leans out the window and screams, “Hey, you-PerVert-yeah-you. Why don’t you fuck off and die!” “Nice talk, asshole, back ‘atcha,” I hollered at him. The next Trumper in a car yells something I can’t write here, and I give it right back to him, when the cop in the next car leans out his window, and speaks directly to me, “You need to be nice.”

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The Truth About The Wiccan Religion

OUT OF THE BROOM-CLOSET:

TRUTH ABOUT WICCAN RELIGION

By Trevor K. McNeil

Wicca?

What comes to mind when you hear, or read, the word “Wicca”? Wiccans are often the subject of fascination, conjecture and fear. Those belonging to the Wiccan religion are some of the most maligned and misunderstood groups of people on the planet. Wicca has become short-hand for “otherness” if not outright evil. Neo-paganism or pagan witchcraft is a contemporary religious movement that attempts to recenter the spirit of humanity on nature and the shared duality of divinity.

Hundreds of Thousands Executed

The Witch hunts in Europe between the 16th and 18th century led to the murder of an estimated 100,000 people, mostly women. Natural events including the devastating Black Plague contributed to near hysteria. Many Christian followers believed the Black Death was an organized effort by Satan and his witches against the Christian Church. From the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693 to the Cult Scares of the late 1980s and early 1990s, those who have strayed from the established theological line of Christianity (or Islam)(or Judaism) have faced intense hatred and abuse.  The dominant religious doctrine of the community requires that the dominant religious force must squash those who profess another belief system. It has nothing to do with finding out who these “others” are and what it is they believe. The backlash seems particularly violent when a religion promotes women and encourages their power.

Feminism

Gerald Gardner and then Alex Sanders and his wife Maxine introduced a new paganism in the mid-twentieth century. Despite its relative modernity, the roots of Wicca go back to the time of Celts and Druids. This “new paganism”  believes humanity’s religious life should “center on ritual nature veneration, natural cycles and magical and spiritual learning”. A distinct difference between Wicca and the other world religions is the concept that divinity is both male and female. In fact, when questioned many Wiccans noted their attraction to the non-patriarchal world view of the Wicca religion. In Wicca the two genders complement and strengthen one another. Feminism has always been an integral feature of the religion. The Wicca religion has an innate gender equality view.

Definitions

Simply put, people who practice the Wiccan religion are nature worshippers. Not in the literal sense of praying to trees, but in that they see every part of nature, including humans, as being part of an interconnected, sacred whole. As with most other pagan faiths, Wicca has many deities associated with it. There is a pantheon of gods and goddesses, some emphasis on goddesses, from which Wiccans pick and choose according to their personal preference. Unlike other faiths, these deities are entirely optional, not only in terms of which one you can choose to associate with, but whether you choose to believe in them at all.

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