Reclaiming the Boston Commons

 

​Reclaiming the Boston Common for Democracy

by Brother Lefty Smith, S.O.B.*

April 6, 2025

 

"The moral arc of the Universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

The event organizers expected 25,000 people to gather in Boston on Saturday for the Hands Off march and rally. Their numbers, drawn from the people who officially signed up online with one of the organizing groups, may have been a bit conservative.  The tens of thousands of us¹ who showed up ​on the Boston Common yesterday certainly weren’t.  

If I was looking for a sign that the progressive spirit ​was alive and well​​ in this country, I was gifted with thousands of them.  In a multitude of colors, ​in personal expressions ​that ranged from acerbic outrage to unbridled humor and ​unabashed hope​, the message was clear: We the People will resist the Trump administration's heavy-handed attempt to deflect the moral arc of history.    

Make no doubt about it. The common everyday citizens of America are a people who are, at heart, kind, generous, and decent human beings. Embracing our diversity, we will recapture our democracy to serve the interests of the vast majority of us, not the insatiable greed of a few. 

Although T(Rump) Rex, the Muskrat, and their cadre of billionaire misanthropes may have tried to grab the levers of federal power for the past couple of months, ​the throng that marched and sang and chanted here today ​made it obvious.  It will take a lot more than a bevy of misguided, often illegal, executive orders to sink our democratic ship of state​.

 

I haven’t felt this much human energy since the days I spent in Zuccotti Park in September 2011. Back then #Occupy Wall Street​! erupted into a national movement.  In fact, some of the most exuberant chants, ​led by the many ​youthful participants who were loudly, yet ​peaceably, assembled yesterday, first emerged from the #OWS! and Black Lives Matter era​s!  Surging through the crowd with the pulsing drumbeat of congas, djembes, and bongos, the message was clear “We are the 99%!” Mr Trump, be advised: “No Justice! No Peace!” 

​All too often, mesmerized by the narrow focus of today's corporately controlled mass media, it's easy to lose sight of the larger picture.​  I tend to forget the wise words of legendary baseball sage ​Yogi Berra​ -- "It ain't over 'til it's over. “ ​

​Knowing now that there were at least a half million of us² registered nationwide to attend – and being reasonably certain that there were many, many, others that just showed up – it’s clear to me. Our democracy is far from over​!  

 

Enough is enough. It's time. We the People are able and willing to stand up and be counted -- and there are a lot more of us than them! 

 

1”Tens of thousands show for Boston ‘Hands Off’ protest against Trump, Elon Musk” by Lance Reynolds and Flint McCoglan, Boston Herald, April 6, 2025  

2 “Anti-Trump protesters gathered at hundreds of locations nationwide” by Sarah D. Wire, USA Today, April 6, 2025