No Kings Allowed in Philadelphia

Or Anywhere Else...On Earth. A Humanist High Mass For America.

Gathering of the Faithful & Invocation

From the Megalopolis surrounding Philadelphia, 80,000 American citizens came to send a loud and clear message to their President: we aim to end your rule over us using the very weapon you are attempting to deny us; namely, our Democratic Republic. The throng gathered in the narthex of this huge outdoor cathedral, Love Park, and processed straight up the aisle of Benjamin Franklin Parkway to the sanctuary of Eakins Oval. The pulpit was at the bottom of the famous stairway leading up to the courtyard of the Philadelphia Art Museum, where a statue of Rocky Balboa holds his boxing gloves high in victory, symbolizing the American fighting spirit. Against Doubt. Against Fear. Against Bullies. Against Evil. There they waited patiently for the Invocation.

Sparking memories of the 1963 March on Washington, the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, electrified the massive congregation with a call to reject authoritarianism and reconstruct a new democracy built on equality and justice for all. With mobilization of the 20% of eligible voters who didn’t vote in the last election, especially the poor and near poor, Barber promised that we can “up end the political calculus.” With a voice that sometimes broke with emotion, and with his left hand clenched in defiance, he concluded his stirring message with this:

If we refuse to bow, and stand up for policies that make life better for every American, if we come together, just one more round, just one more round in history to fight for the heart and soul of this Democracy, I declare unto you when the work is done, when we’ve finished organizing, when we’ve done praying and preaching, when we’ve finished marching, when we finish registering voters, when we finish our nonviolent action, I guarantee you Truth will win. Justice will win. Equality will win. Justice will win! On that day, we will truly be one nation under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all! Stand! Stand! Stand! Stand!

As he turned away from the podium he breathed out, “Hallelujah.”

You can hear a clip with his complete 15 minute speech and opening prayer for the Minnesota victims here (scroll down). You can catch just his last 60 seconds by clicking on the graphic below. It is impassioned.

For those of you who know your Bible, you will notice that as Brother Barber turns to leave the stage, you can see in the background, to the right of his image, a large yellow-orange figure. It is the 15 foot high, inflatable Golden Donald Calf. It was commissioned, and is owned by, Faithful America.

The Golden Donald Calf made its debut on the National Mall a month before the 2024 elections. In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam the story of the Golden Calf is an admonition to shun idolatry. The story in the Koran differs in detail from the Judeo-Christian account, but in both, the concept of “idol” is abstracted to “anything you love more than God” or “an enemy of God who claims to be from God.”

Oration by The Honorable Jamie Raskin

It took only two minutes for Raskin to boil down the ambitious theme of his 20 minute speech: the removal Donald Trump from office via grassroots political movements, and the rebuilding of our Constitutional Republic anew.

Those of us who aspire and attain public office are nothing but the servants of the people. The moment somebody in public office begins to act like the master of the people, that is the moment to evict, eject, reject, impeach, try, convict, and start all over again!

With relentless and forceful indictments, Raskin chronicled Trump’s well-known Constitutional violations, acts of cruelty, vulgar defamations of judges, and blatant use of the Presidency to enrich himself while compromising his allegiance to the people whom he serves.

A List of Grievances

You have been violating the law, trampling the law, ignoring the law, acting as if it is irrelevant, the only thing that matters which is your own wealth and power.

• violating the rights of the people

• trespassing on the powers of Congress

• staging provocations against the members of congress in other parts of the government [JT - several specific ones are itemized in the speech]

• violating the orders of the courts

• terrorizing American communities with masked men in unmarked cars, arresting people without warrants

• pardoning 1600 felon rioters and insurrectionists who brutally injured 140 police officers on January 6, 2021

• auctioning off pardons to Republican criminals in DC

• [accepted] an illegal $400 million jumbo jet gift from the emirs of Qatar

• sent to the Marines to California, hijacked the National Guard there, and threatened to seize the lawful power of the governor

Similar American Movements that Toppled “Kings”

We marched with millions of people across America to celebrate not the people in power, but the power of the people. We march in cadence with the great civilizing nonviolent movements of American history.

• the abolitionists

• the suffragists

• the bonus marchers

• the civil rights movement

• the women's movement

• the labor movement

• the peace movement

• the women's march

• the environmental movement

• the LGBTQ movement

• march for our lives

• the climate movement

We may not be founding fathers in the 18th century but we are founding fighters in the 21st century.

Ignorance of Democracy, Abuses of Power & Corruption

Donald Trump never talks about the framers because he knows nothing about them. But the framers knew a lot about people like Donald Trump. Sometime between now and the Fourth of July, Mister President, you must read the Declaration of Independence. Because Thomas Jefferson could have been writing about you. He told the people of America to rise up against King George and his lust for absolute tyranny. [JT Raskin compares King George’s abuses and Trump’s] Yes, Donald, the Declaration and the Constitution were written by people who wanted to stop criminal bosses like you from taking State power.

…

Why is it Congress has the power to impeach a President for Treason, Bribery, and other High Crimes and Misdemeanors and he doesn't have the right to impeach us?

Congress has the power to pass budgets and taxes. We've got the power to create departments and spend money. We have the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and therefore to enact tariffs, which is why his tariffs have been struck down by United States District Court. We’ve got the power to declare war, not the President. If anybody's going to declare war on Venezuela it is going to be the Congress of the United States, not Stephen Miller or Tulsi Gabbard or Pete Hegseth or anyone else in their Signal chat room.

No! You don't get to be a monarch or a dictator in America, and you don't get to be on the payroll of monarchs and dictators from other countries. Sorry, Donald, you don't get to keep the millions of dollars you pocketed from Saudi Arabia, from China, from the United Arab Emirates or Qatar. You've got to return all the money your golf courses and country clubs have gotten from the Secret Service, the Department of Defense and Commerce and so on. Our Government is not your personal ATM machine!

[If] Donald Trump Junior says [again], “My Dad doesn't even accept his salary.” [We should say] I'm sorry, that is all he is allowed to accept!”

The framers were clear, you get paid by the people of the United States to whom you owe a duty not Putin and the kleptocrats of Russia, not bin Salman, and the theocrats of Saudi Arabia, not Orbán, or the autocrats of Egypt and Turkey. The framers wanted an undivided duty to the American people. You can't sell out our Constitution to build your luxury hotels in Gaza or a golf course in Greenland.

Fighting and Winning Fascism at Home and Abroad

The people are winning all over America. The bullies are on the run. We ran Elon Musk out of town! Musk now says Trump should be impeached and Trump says that Musk should be investigated for his tens of billions of dollars in Federal contracts and for once they are both right!

My friends, Fascism will not be the end of American Democracy. American Democracy will be the end of Fascism. We will stand up for Democracy and Human Rights and Freedom all over the world. We will stand with President Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine against Putin's filthy bloodthirsty invasion. We will stand with the people of Greenland; the people of Europe and Africa; the people of Canada and Mexico; for our common right to trade with each other, to respect each other, to travel and migrate and seek asylum without fear and without terror. We are the ones fighting against terror and tyranny today. And I look at you Philadelphia, I look at you today, and I know we are winning. We are winning.

Benediction

Quoting Thomas Paine, he closed with this:

Everyone that stands with us now will win the love and favor and affection of every man and every woman for all time. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered, but we have this saving consolation: the more difficult the struggle, the more glorious in the end will be our victory.

That victory will be ours, Philadelphia. Thank you Indivisible, thank you Philadelphia. Thank you America.