Full Transcript Is Below
BJ Mendelson: Hello there. No, the book isn’t done, but I thought tomorrow was really important. So I thought I could burn some time that should be used to finish this book, to talk about No Kings instead, so hang with me.
You might be wondering what’s going on in my area. There are events everywhere in Orange County. We will have a list of the ones that we’re aware of in today’s edition of the Monroe Gazette. I just want to talk to you about the one in Monroe, though.
Local Event Details Beyond Monroe
Goshen No Kings Event Details:
What: ‘No Kings’ Rally
When: Saturday, March 28, 2026
Where: Village Green, corner of Main Street and South Church St
Time: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Warwick No Kings Event Details:
What: ‘No Kings’ Rally
When: Saturday, March 28, 2026
Where: At Railroad Green
Time: 10am-11:30am
Port Jervis No Kings Event Details:
What: ‘No Kings’ Rally
When: Saturday, March 28, 2026
Where: Veteran’s Memorial Park
Time: 12-2pm
Cornwall
What: ‘No Kings’ Rally
When: Saturday, March 28, 2026
Where: Cornwall Plaza Sidewalk 17 Quaker Av (Don’t go to Skoufis’s office. Boo him for trying to ban masks for protests and doing literally nothing to pass New York For All.)
Time: 12-2pm
Middletown
What: ‘No Kings’ Rally
When: Saturday, March 28, 2026
Where: 14 Old Church St.
Time: 11:30am-1pm
Newburgh
What: ‘No Kings’ Rally
When: Saturday, March 28, 2026
Where: Colden Street & 2nd Street
Time: 12-2pm
And of course …
March 28th at 1 p.m. in the Village of Monroe on the corner of 17M and Lake Street.
That’s going to be where, if you’ve driven through the Village of Monroe on a Saturday, you might have seen Hands Off Hudson Valley. There’s some other groups that have also been out protesting, but Hands Off Hudson Valley is there every other Saturday, And so that’s where you should go. Tomorrow at one o’clock, Village of Monroe. Right in the downtown, right where the mill ponds are, between the two of them, that’s where they typically gather.
Full disclosure, I am a member of the steering committee for Hands Off Hudson Valley, although really all credit goes to Carol and Nora and Irene for all of their work, because really they’re the ones driving the bus, and I’m sort of like doing the best I can as I have time to contribute. So I think it’s important to go out if you’re in Chester, if you’re in Woodbury. If you’re in Woodbury, you can go to the one in Cornwall. If you’re in Chester, you can go to the one in Warwick if you’d like. We would encourage you to come on down to Monroe, though. We think that there’s a nice base here to build off of and it’s gonna be fun.
We have 44 people signed up right now. Hopefully all 44 come.
But even if they don’t, even if it’s five people, it’s still great. And this is why I want to talk about this and this is why it’s important.
Here’s Why You Want To Come Out For Events Like No Kings
I’m going to give you an example involving climate change. Most people in America right now know that there’s a climate emergency. It doesn’t matter if you’re like the reddest red Republican or the bluest blue Democrat. The majority of Americans understand and acknowledge that we are living through a climate emergency.
The thing is, is that not a lot of people say it out loud. And the reason why is because they don’t see or hear other people talking about it. When you turn on the news, you don’t really hear about the climate emergency. When you’ve got a bad storm outside and you’ve got 60 mile per hour winds, you think, oh, well, that’s climate change. But we don’t talk about it. We don’t acknowledge it. We don’t acknowledge it because we don’t see other people talking about it. So the reason why an event like No Kings is so important is to let people know that they’re not alone
So even if there’s five people tomorrow in Monroe, March 28th at one o’clock downtown, Village Monroe … Rven if there’s five people, those five people demonstrate to others that they’re not alone, that there is a problem, that there is something worth talking about. So just showing up has a lot of power. It’s not gonna fix things overnight. We’re not gonna end the climate emergency in a weekend. We’re not gonna, regardless of your political ideology, we’re not going to get rid of the corporate influence, which has made our politics so batshit crazy overnight, right? Like that takes a constitutional amendment and that’s not something that happens overnight.
But by showing up, we start to walk down that road a little bit. And the more often these events happen and the more people show up, the further down the road we get. So it’s a starting place. So I know a of people sometimes go, why bother showing up? It won’t change anything. It does. The thing is, is that the change won’t happen overnight, right? Like nobody’s going to snap their fingers and change things. It’s going to be this constant drip over the next, God, I hope not three years, but it could very well be over the next three years, just this constant drip of people showing up and saying what’s happening is not okay.
We need things to change. And the more people show up at these events, it gives permission to other people who are kind of on the fence, which is most people right now, if we’re being honest. That’s the key here. You showing up empowers others to show up too, and the more people who come out, the more powerful you are as a group.
You’re either aware that there’s a national emergency right now, or you kind of suspect that something’s wrong, but you don’t want to deal with it, either because you’re busy, which I understand, totally get it, or because you’re afraid, which is most of us, or because you don’t know what to do, you don’t know what else to do. So by going to these events, you give permission to others to speak their thoughts out loud and share their concerns, and that gives permission for more people to tune in.
No Kings isn’t designed to change things over night.
It’s designed to give people permission to think and act as if there is a national emergency, because we know there is one. And the more of us that start to do that, the more power you start to build, the more power you start to build, the more that you can change things, whether it’s here on the local level, because there’s gonna be a big fight coming in the village of Monroe. Let me tell you, we’ll talk more about that next week.
The only way any of these things change is by showing up. And right now, not enough people show up. Not enough people show up in the Village of Monroe. Not enough people show up in Blooming Grove. Not enough people show up in Chester at the Village. At the Village Board meeting. There was only three people at the last one on March 9th.
If you want to change things, the first thing you do is show up. So what better place than tomorrow, March 28th, 1 p.m. The Village of Monroe in the downtown between the mill ponds, hands off Hudson Valley, is hosting our No Kings event.
We hope to see you there.
If you can’t make it, there are plenty of other events to join, including ones in Cornwall and Port Jervis and Warwick and Goshen. We’ll have all of that information for you. (See above.)
Either way, we just want you to get out there. And if you’re thinking, well, you know, I voted for Trump, that’s okay. You’re welcome here too. This isn’t a partisan event. This is an American event. This is us as Americans saying that there’s a problem. So if you’re a Republican and you voted for Trump, you’re welcome here. If you are super liberal, like I am, you are welcome there. If you’re on the fence and don’t have a political position, you are welcome there. That’s how you build a movement.
