No Kings National Day of Defiance Protection Rally

media release: A group of Madison area senior citizens in their 80s and 90s are planning for 100 participants to join a rally near their homes on the West Side for No Kings National Day of Defiance Saturday (June 14).

Calling their event a protection rally rather than a protest, the octogenarians and nonagenarians use social media to invite others to gather at the corner of Tree Lane and Gammon Road at 2 p.m. Saturday because the location is more convenient for residents with mobility issues, organizers said.

The organizers said they support Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security Income (SSI), SNAP (a federal food program for those with low incomes) and other government programs that help those with financial hardships or other challenges.

Trained in organizing tactics through protests of the 1960s and 1970s, the seniors said they want to expand opportunities for older residents who may also need walkers, wheelchairs and canes to attend their events which started with small rallies May 1 and May 28.  

“There are more than 59 million Americans over 65 in the United States, about 17 percent of the population, and we need to raise our voices in this fight to protect and preserve social assistance programs for ourselves and many others,” said Phyllis Stokes, an organizer, who estimated about 15 percent, or more than 100,000 of Madison metro’s residents, are seniors. “It’s uplifting and inspiring for us to hear the supportive honks from traffic and see the applause from drivers stopped at the traffic lights.”

After several organizers attended the April 5 rally at the Capitol, the organizers said they found many older neighbors couldn’t comfortably travel by bus to the Capitol or UW campus for rallies organized by national groups such as Indivisible.

Stokes, a former Planned Parenthood employee, worked with neighbors John Rasmus, an Episcopal priest, Rose Rasmus, a retired special education teacher, and Mary Ann Berger, a former teacher and community activist, to start the group because they said they didn’t want older voters to be invisible in the debate on proposals from President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress. They now have a core group of 20 supporters.

“I have mobility issues, and I can’t stand for long periods during a rally or waiting for a bus, but we are mad as hell about the changes the president and Republican Congress members are advancing, and we couldn’t stay silent,” said Rose Rasmus.

Berger said successful rallies during their youth gave the organizers hope that they can help coming generations.

“Today’s rallies can stop the anti-human policies coming out of Washington,” said Berger. “We have an obligation to our children and grandchildren to preserve programs that help the vulnerable. We paid taxes for those programs during our 50-year careers, many of which were with Madison companies and government offices.”