This weekend, something powerful happened – not just across the country, but right here in Salisbury, the heart of Rowan County. Even before the official start time, people began lining up across Innes and Church St. in downtown Salisbury, and it wasn’t a crowd of strangers – we were neighbors, friends, mothers, fathers, veterans, and so many others.

The state party put it best: ‘from Murphy to Manteo, from rural crossroads to major cities’, millions of people stepped outside and stood together as part of the “No Kings” movement. Salisbury did our part – national-level organizers estimate that roughly 8 million people showed up across more than 3,000 events nationwide and around the world, including gatherings as far away as Paris, France and London, England.

As always, though, numbers only tell part of the story.

Here in Rowan County, around 600 people showed up. We weren’t professionals, whatever that means, and we certainly weren’t “paid protesters”, as the far-right loves to claim (we haven’t seen a paycheck yet, have you?). We were a crowd of neighbors, sharing remarks and witty takes on this administration, jokes, serious discussions about what’s happening to our country, and more than a few instances of just catching up with one another. We saw community – folks who recognized each other from the grocery store, from school pickup lines, from church pews and community gatherings. We may not agree on everything all of the time, but it’s a safe guess that we all felt the shared understanding that showing up matters not just for visibility, but because we all deserve a chance to feel seen and heard.

There were conversations. There were smiles. There were moments where strangers became something closer to neighbors or friends.

Above all, there was peace.

Across the country, the message of “No Kings” began with and remains in nonviolence and collective voice. It’s made of people gathering not out of anger alone, but out of a belief that democracy requires participation. Today, here, that spirit held true.

Today told a more important message, beyond the protest signs and shared chants: we aren’t alone.

We are teachers and veterans, parents and students, lovers and friends, lifelong residents and new arrivals. We are people who care deeply about our community and about each other, and it showed. And for a few hours, we stood together; not as strangers, not as opponents, but as neighbors.

We’re people, showing up for our neighbors and for decency. Together, we stand – that’s the RCDP motto, and it’s one we all take seriously.
That sure sounds like the America we know.

No Kings in America.
Signed, Rowan.