With Donald Trump commanding Congress, the Supreme Court and even some media outlets, those of us who want to preserve what made America great have a lot fewer ways to make a difference.
So despite frigid weather and patches of snow and ice on the ground, I joined more than 60 fellow patriots for the Schuylkill County Democratic Committee’s No Kings demonstration on Tuesday at Garfield Square in Pottsville. Together, we proclaimed our support of democracy, freedom, diversity and due process – principles Trump and his Project 2025ers want us to forget.
I expected counter-protesters, but I wasn’t prepared for the hostility from some MAGA Flag Rally Group 2024 members.
It was a stark reminder of how divided our country has become.
I can’t claim to be objective. In my view, we proclaimed our patriotism and our anger at the groundless attacks by the Trump/Project 2025 administration on thousands of hard-working immigrants and on anyone opposing it.
By contrast, the MAGAs – at least the loudest ones — seemed mostly intent on provoking us and drowning us out.
We outnumbered them more than 5-1 and managed to hold our own against their powerful sound systems, megaphones, a toy horn that someone blew incessantly and, for some, enough adrenaline to run their mouths nonstop.
We were supposed to be separated by one lane of traffic and a row of diagonal parking spaces, but one guy kept crossing over, calling us names and getting in our faces.
He even tried to disrupt our vigil for Renee Good, the Minneapolis woman whom an ICE agent killed as she fled from him. (He apparently swallowed the White House’s line that she’d asked for it.)
Overwhelmed by the cold, I left just before the service, but I saw the agitator’s video, which showed him invading our group, shouting obscenities and demanding “no justice for Renee” while a Lutheran minister was trying to speak.
Claire Kempes, who organized the event, told me he got uncomfortably close to our members, so she called the police.
Fortunately, they came quickly, and things calmed down. But Claire confirmed reports that the MAGAs blasted their music, even while everyone was singing “America the Beautiful.” (They had a problem with that?)
My role
I did contribute to the divisiveness with a strongly-worded Facebook post noting that the MAGA group’s organizer had called for “no confrontations.” Later I learned that the agitator wasn’t a member. Since he was the worst offender, I corrected that point.
(I didn’t see anyone try to stop him, though. In fact, the organizer liked his video on Facebook and congratulated him for “really crank(ing) them up. Lmao!!”)
But I also realized that fighting is just a distraction. So even though I knew my original post might prevent a dialogue, I reached out to some of the MAGAs to try to find out what they’d hoped to accomplish.
At first, the organizer and I found common ground; we both agreed that a discussion would be more productive than a shouting match. But when he saw my post, he decided not to meet with me.
Fair enough, although he irritated me by repeating the tired right-wing lie that paid protesters were at our event. (No one has ever offered us money, and I don’t know anyone who asked for it. We fight fascism for free.)
He had also claimed that most of our attendees weren’t from around here. From what I could tell, everyone lives in or fairly near Schuylkill County, but so what if some out-of-staters stumbled upon this event? We were demonstrating for the future of our nation.
A calmer MAGA member texted me, and we had a friendly exchange. He politely disagreed with my assessment of Trump as a fascist but said the agitator’s behavior saddened him and that he agreed with some – though far from all –Democratic positions.
Tom Noonan, one of our demonstrators, approached some of the MAGA ralliers. Results were mixed.
He told a guy whose sign said we should enforce immigration laws that he agreed but didn’t want “goon squads behaving like the Gestapo.”
Conversations with a guy who claimed we hate the American flag and another who maintained the 2020 election was stolen didn’t last long, he said, adding that he yelled at the horn blower.
On the other hand, Tom said, “I actually shook hands with several of them, which felt better than a fruitless shouting match. At least one of them said there are some things about Trump he has a problem with, but it was too loud an environment to explore that in a serious discussion.”
All this reminded me that I must refrain from dehumanizing the opposition even as its leaders do so to so many people.
But because some matters must remain nonnegotiable, the demonstrations can’t stop. Not only must we keep making our voices heard, but we must also let other like-minded people know they’re not alone.
Canary note: Opinions expressed in any Op-Ed column appearing on this site are the views of the writer and are not necessarily the opinions of Coal Region Canary.
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Josephine Kwiatkowski
January 25, 2026 at 12:38 pm
Great article. I was at the rally and vigil. Both were uplifting. It was sad to hear all of the jeering from across the street when we had our vigil. Not a lot of respect for the dead, so sad. I have never been paid to protest and I have not gotten my tariff or DOGE check either.