OFF STAGE: No Kings Day

This weekend, I chose love.

Not allegiance. Not silence. Not a throne.

My family went to a local community theater’s Pride celebration.

There were painted cheeks, glittered handprints, small town laughter, and kids dancing to live music in the streets. That was our protest. That was our celebration.

Showing up for community is a form of resistance.

We didn’t need signs or speeches to make our point. We just needed each other.

⸻

I come from an intense line of Appalachian Women.

Tomatoes. Children. Church & Sunday dinners that fed more than just mouths. And keeping men who were as evil as they come.. on the straight and narrow, to the best of their abilities.

Women who weathered storms without making headlines.

Who built safety with their bare hands.

Who knew that care was the most radical thing you could offer, in a world built on their own harm.

They taught me that protection doesn’t always look loud.

Sometimes, it looks like showing up.

Sometimes, it looks like cooking a meal.

Sometimes, it looks like saying no.

And sometimes, it looks like holding the hand of your neighbor.

⸻

So I make this promise to my children, and the generations after me:

I will stand for freedom that includes everyone.

I will stand to see love win, not because it’s easy, but because we kept choosing it.

And when the world gets loud and sharp and heavy, you’ll know how and where to find your people.

No Kings Day isn’t about rebellion for the sake of it.

It’s about standing in love when everything else tells you to be cruel and inhumane.

It’s about using what we’ve been given.. voices, votes, hands, hearts.. to protect what’s still tender.

Peacefully,

No Kings. No hate. Just us. 🕊️