Our Day of Redemption

Tomorrow is October 17th “No Kings Day”.

All across this country, regular people are going to step out their front doors and walk into the street together.

It may be the largest gathering in our collective history. Nobody will know the true count until it’s over, and maybe not even then. But I can tell you this much. It is going to be big, and it is going to be ours.

I want to talk about that word in the title. Redemption.

Redemption doesn’t mean we were bad people. It means something got away from us, and we are going to set it right. A debt was run up in our name, and we didn’t sign for it. Tomorrow we go and settle the account.

For a long time a lot of us sat back. We figured somebody else would handle it. We figured the people in charge would mind the store. We figured the rules would hold all by themselves.

They don’t. Rules don’t hold themselves. People hold them. When the people let go, the rules start to slip, a little at a time, until one day you look up and wonder how it got this far.

That is what tomorrow is about. Taking hold again.

This country was built on one idea that still matters more than any other. Nobody is above the people. No king. No crown. No one person whose word is law just because they said it.

That idea didn’t come free. It was paid for. Every generation since has had to decide whether to keep it or let it go. Tomorrow is our turn to decide.

How we carry ourselves.

There will be people tomorrow who want a reaction. They will try to get under your skin. They will shout. They will wave things in your face. Some will hope you lose your temper, because one angry moment on camera is worth more to them than a million peaceful people.

Don’t give it to them. That’s the whole trick, and it’s simple. No reaction. Let them shout into the wind.

A calm crowd is a strong crowd. A crowd that keeps its head can’t be painted as a mob. When millions of people stand together, steady and peaceful, there is nothing for anyone to twist. The picture speaks for itself.

So be kind to the police officer on the corner. Pick up your trash. Help the old fella who’s slow on his feet. Bring water and share it. Let the size of the crowd and the good of the crowd do the talking.

That is how you win the day.

Bring somebody with you. Your grown kids. Your grandkids. The neighbor who always says they’re too busy. The young person at work who thinks none of this has anything to do with them.

It has everything to do with them. They will live with what we keep and what we lose a lot longer than we will. They should see with their own eyes what it looks like when the people stand up. Some things you have to see to believe.

A rally is not the finish line. It’s the starting gun.

You can march all day long. You can carry the best sign on the block. But if you go home and don’t vote, it was a shout with no echo. Loud for a moment, then gone.

Election Day is November 3rd. That is a little over two weeks from now. In a lot of places early voting is already open. Look it up for where you live. Today, if you can.

So here is the plan. Go to the rally in the morning. Then, if the polls are open near you, go vote that same day while the fire is still in you. If you can’t vote tomorrow, pick the day you will. Write it down. Put it on the calendar. Tell somebody so they hold you to it.

March, then vote. That’s how the shout gets its echo.

I’ll say one more thing, because it’s what I write about every day.

Power only answers to the people who watch it. That goes for governments. It goes for big companies. It goes for the machines being built right now that are going to touch every part of our lives. Nothing with power stays honest on its own. Somebody has to keep an eye on it.

That somebody is you. It always was.

You don’t need a title to be a watchdog. You don’t need permission. You just need to show up, keep your eyes open, and refuse to look away when something isn’t right.

Tomorrow, millions of people will do that together. Out loud. In the open. Peaceful and steady and proud.

That’s a fine thing to be part of. Years from now, somebody younger is going to ask you where you were on October 17th. I hope you get to tell them you were there.

I hope you get to tell them you stood up, you kept your head, and then you went and voted.

That is redemption. Not a gift handed down from anybody. A thing we do ourselves, together, one step at a time.

No kings. Just us.

See you out there tomorrow. It’s our day.

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This post was drafted with AI governed assistance and reviewed and directed by Michael S. Faust Sr. before publication.

” Attic Thoughts”-library – Intelligent People Assume Nothing