“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.”
Be Nice
Who the fuck says I “need to be nice?” I don’t understand this phenomenon. Truly I am angry and disgusted. This is now my fourth protest and each time I have been the center of rage for the MAGA’s. I don’t see any Trumpsters going up to an obviously healthy man, a man able to walk, or even an able bodied woman, and start spewing their filth; Instead they find me, an old man in a wheelchair, and think it’s okay to make nasty comments, threaten and harass me.
An Amplified Voice
It didn’t take five minutes before the next MAGA came up to me. The man and the woman were carrying anti-abortion signs. The man who was using a personal voice enhancer, came up to me. Standing within a couple inches of me this guy decided it was okay if he used his amplified voice right in my face to point at a group of gay protesters standing close by that they were according to him about to “burn in hell.” He went on an extreme bigoted rant invoking Jesus, Mary, and the Holy Spirit and pointed from them to me, specifying that I too was definitely headed to an eternity in the pit of fire. I began to hear chants behind us, “Pro-Choice,” “Pro-Choice,” over and over.
Talking Back
I told the preacher that gays like all of mankind are perfect in their making according to God’s word. He called me a ‘Satanist’ and this went back and forth for several minutes, with him amping up his mic until he was drowning out everyone else’s voice, but his. A familiar action in the era of Trump. After his verbal, and quite vivid picture of Satan waiting for me at the gates of hell, I let him have it-and told him there was no hell; except here on earth where some men decide they are better than their brothers and sisters and invoke the name of Jesus to spread their poisonous hate, “Blasphemer.” At this point, the store front preacher appeared to lose his mind and went on an angry, bitter, and senseless tirade that was mostly unintelligible. Despite the voice enhancer he made no sense.
Lost Minds and Souls
We’re probably all lost, sadly….however, nothing makes me angrier than folks using the name of Christ to spread hate. We are in this country allowed to have our own opinion, but since when is it okay to put your words in the mouth of Christ, or anyone else, for that matter?
What Next?
I can’t wait for the next protest I think I’ll get me one of those voice amplifiers. I’ve got Dar on Amazon checking out the prices. LOL. Anyway, that was what happened to me on October 18th. I haven’t heard about any upcoming protests but I have been hearing about the 3.5% turning point. Theoretically, according to the algorithms, if you can bring 3.5% of a country’s population out in peaceful protest it will begin to affect the governing body, whatever that “body” may be. 3.5% of the U.S. population is 10 million protesters. We had 7 million turn out with the “No Kings” #2. I have no doubt the chaos, cruelty, incompetence, and blatant corruption of Trump and his oligarchs is wearing thin even on regular FOX viewers, poor white, under-served, under-insured rural America. These folks have been the foundation of the GOP for the last 35 years and they have been betrayed at every turn for the benefit of the ultra rich.
