Town Common was home to one of the more than 3,000 nationwide No Kings protests on March 28, the third iteration of widespread demonstrations against the Trump administration.
An estimated more than 1,000 people heard multiple speakers call out various Trump policies as inherent threats to democracy and contrary to the U.S. Constitution while calling for more assertive acts of civil disobedience.
Michael Bailit, a member of the Needham Resists group that organized the event, began by quoting the Constitution.
“The framers designed a government unlike any other the world had ever seen,” Bailit then said. “We gather here today because of the shared concern that this country is rapidly surrendering the attributes that have made it so special.
“We worry that this country is no longer striving to perfect itself but instead surrendering what had made it a model for the rest of the world.”
He was the first of many to issue what felt like an urgent call to action. “It’s on us, people,” he told the crowd. “If we want to save our democracy, we and our fellow Americans — Republicans, Independents and Democrats — need to take action to make sure it is not taken away from us before it is too late.”
The Rev. John McIver Gage, senior minister at the Congregational Church of Needham, followed Bailit, noting the significance of the event being held the day before Palm Sunday when Christians celebrate Jesus arriving in Jerusalem to crowds hailing him as a messiah.
“They were coming out to air their grievances against their literal and religious leaders,” said Gage. “Palm Sunday was not a parade, it was a protest. And it was a planned protest. And the word we associate with it is ‘Hosanna,’ which means ‘save us.’”
“Save us from would-be kings and petty tyrants. Save us from the life-stealing, death-dealing power of empires. Save us from leaders who refuse to lead and public servants who refuse to serve. Save us from war for profit and politics.”
Gage and others stressed that remaining hopeful is most important. “We have to be hopeful, because no one is going to come along and just hand us hope.”
Ike Walker followed Gage. An Olin College senior from Sapulpa, Oklahoma, studying mechanical engineering, he was highly critical of Trump’s retreat from measures designed to address climate change.
“We are at record low levels of optimism within our nation,” Walker said. “As a young person especially, it seems that all of these existential threats are bearing down.”
“At Olin, I have seen this happen to countless of my peers. As engineers, we have so much power to design solutions to problems, yet many of my peers are becoming hopeless.”
Needham’s two state legislators, Sen. Becca Rausch and Rep. Josh Tarsky, spoke of the need for continued vigilance among both elected officials and citizens.
Rausch, whose Needham event was her sixth that day, spoke about legislation she is sponsoring to address what she sees as vulnerabilities in state election laws.
“We still have a ton of work to do on our elections infrastructure, on ensuring the pillars of our democracy continue, even on making sure that the current occupants of the White House cannot show up on our presidential primary ballot again in 2028,” she said. “I want to be clear with all of you that that is entirely possible right now,” she added, a Constitutional prohibition on presidents serving more than two terms notwithstanding.
Tarsky spoke of being affected by comments he heard at a recent local meeting from a U.S. citizen who noted with dismay that her teenage son is wary of going outside for fear of being detained.
“That moment has stayed with me,” Tarsky said.
“We’re here because we believe in something better. We believe in a country where that family never asks whether they belong. Where they can speak freely, show up proudly, and know their rights are real and protected.”
The Rev. Sandra Bonnette-Kim, senior pastor at Carter United Methodist Church, echoed that experience, telling of her own challenges navigating the world in the current environment.
“As a woman of color and an immigrant, it has been one of the most difficult periods of my life — even more challenging than through COVID with the rise of Asian hate,” she said. “I never thought we would live in a world where people are taken from the streets, their homes, workplaces, hospitals, and even courthouses and places of worship.”
“I never expected to live in fear, carrying my passport every day just in case I am taken.”
Unlike the prior No Kings events in Needham held in June and October of last year, participants were allowed to gather on the Common, and the speakers were permitted to address the crowd from the steps of Town Hall rather than from cramped space on the sidewalk along Great Plain Avenue.
Needham Resists obtained a town permit for the space, received under the sponsorship of the First Parish in Needham Unitarian Universalist Church. This required the group to pay for a police detail and obtain liability insurance for the day.
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