Pittsfield — Seven weeks after President Donald J. Trump was sworn in for a second (nonconsecutive) term, community members and elected officials spoke at the “No Kings in America: Rally for Democracy” on Sunday, March 9. The 90-minute event at the Colonial Theatre was co-organized by the Berkshire Democratic Brigades, Rural Freedom Network, Greylock Together, Left Field, Berkshire Indivisible, Progressive Democrats of America, and the NAACP Berkshire County Branch.
On February 19, official White House social media pages posted a graphic with an AI-generated President Trump donning a crown on his head along with the caption “Long live the king.”
“Someone forgot to tell Trump that Burger King is just a restaurant, not his title,” U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey (D) said during the event. “I know it’s hard to go to bed despondent and then wake up angry. It’s even harder to make ends meet. How do we look at the children and know how to explain the things happening around them? Even without a liar, convict, and cheater in the Oval Office, we as a nation are confronted with climate change, gun violence, income inequality, and racial injustice. It’s hard to imagine how we make our world, our communities, our homes the places our children and grandchildren deserve to inherit.”
Sen. Markey warned that President Trump wants his critics to “give up” and “give in to despair that makes it too hard to get up and fight.” “But that’s not what we do here in Massachusetts,” he said. “Make no mistake, the fight for this country right now is here in Massachusetts because Donald Trump is targeting us, our economy, our workers, and our way of life with his executive orders, his closures, illegal funding freezes, firings, and unconstitutional power grabs. Trump is villainizing immigrants, transgender friends, the LGBTQ community, and anyone who does not belong to his billionaire boys club. Trump doesn’t want to make America great again, he wants to make America hate again. This is the agenda he is spewing into the body politic of the United States.”
During the event, speakers echoed each other with angry criticism against President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who operators under the title of “special government employee” in the Trump administration as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Previously recorded remarks from Attorney General Andrea Campbell and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) were played for the audience during the event.
“We will continue to show up in court to fight against the federal administration that’s trying to take our federal money, NIH (National Institutes of Health) funding, you name it, we will keep fighting,” Attorney General Campbell said in her pre-recorded remarks. “At the end of the day, I’m proud of you because you get the rule of law and what our democracy means. It’s fragile right now, but it doesn’t have to remain that way if we all get involved and all get engaged.”
“Look, I don’t have to tell you that we’ve been in tough fights,” Sen. Warren said in her pre-recorded remarks. “They are coming for our freedoms. They are coming for our democracy when unelected billionaires start ransacking our government offices. This is not business as usual. Nothing is normal. We are living in a nightmare created by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and we need to wake up. We need to stand shoulder to shoulder. We need to use every tool we have to fight back. So we’re going to keep up the fight in Congress. We’re going to keep up the fight in the courts. We’re going to keep raising our voices.”
State Sen. Paul Mark (D – Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin, and Hampshire District) emceed the event in place of previously announced emcee former Gov. Deval Patrick. “Resistance brings community,” Sen. Mark said. “Two hundred and fifty years ago, the King of England George III decided he would try to interfere in what was, in some places [in New England], 150 years of self-rule, self-government, town meetings, and elections. George III decided he would bring hell to Boston, and then he found out that bringing hell to Boston is like bringing sand to a beach. The king sailed away in 1776, and I’m here to say that the king is not coming back to Massachusetts.”
Pittsfield Mayor Peter Marchetti addressed the Trump administration’s impact on local municipal governments. He explained to the audience how the cuts made to financial agencies and federal funding are starting to be felt locally. “We are being asked to review our federal grants and to make sure they are compliant with [President Trump’s] orders being issued,” Marchetti said. “If we don’t make changes, we risk losing vital funding. I’m doing everything in my power to make sure that Pittsfield has the resources we need while holding true to the values that we have. We must and we will stay true to our values and work together to navigate through these times that test our patience and resilience. We’ve done it before, and we will continue to do it again. Let us not forget that we have overcome struggles, and we have partners locally at all levels of government. We’re fighting not only for Pittsfield but all of Massachusetts and more.”
“We find ourselves in a moment that no symphony at Tanglewood could convey to us through feeling,” said social justice activist Joey Pisani. “We are in a truly unprecedented time. Massachusetts is known around the nation as the beacon of hope, a place where we strive to guarantee that everybody can grow up, educated, housed, healthy, and protected. I know that we are all tired, exhausted, and disheartened from what is happening in Washington, D.C. However, just because we are tired does not mean that we will rest because we know that our public programs and institutions are worth fighting for. We know that, while fighting to dismantle systemic racism has taken so many souls from us, it’s worth it. We know that fully funding schools and infrastructure will always be worth it. We know that building up our communities is always worth it.”
“There is one race on this earth: The human race,” said NAACP Berkshires President Dennis Powell during his speech. “The human race is entitled to human rights and human freedoms. The foundation of our democracy, protected by our Constitution, is the idea that all people, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, gender, identity, or who they love, deserve these rights. No group stands alone in democracy or falls alone when democracy is challenged.”
