Weekly Member Update - June 16, 2025

Ok, we'll admit it; we are still giddy from No Kings Day. We knew that the Mighty 518 would turn out, but y'all exceeded our expectations in a big, big way! By our estimation, about 10,000(!!!) of you showed up on Wolf Road. Together, we occupied the entire length of both sides of Wolf, two or three deep on the sidewalk from Central Ave. all the way to Albany-Shaker, and a whole bunch more of you decorated your cars, taped signs to the windows and spent a couple of hours driving up and down Wolf Road, hooting, hollering and honking. We captured some of that energy with drone footage, which you can view here. 

We've seen some protests in our day, but Saturday felt special. Maybe it is all that is going on in our Nation, punctuated as it was early Saturday by tragic news of the assassination of the former Speaker of the Minnesota House and her spouse, but our time together on Wolf Road felt like community. We gathered together, familiar faces and first timers alike, young and not-so-young, all motivated to fight the darkness and cruelty being pushed upon us every single day. And we answered that darkness -- that creeping spectre of totalitarianism -- with defiance, and love, and joy, and humor, and a whole lot of patriotism. Yes, we were all full of anger and rage, but we saw a ton of smiles and friendship on Saturday, and that has buoyed us. That's the beautiful thing about collective action; to be in a sea of humanity united in a common purpose is invigorating and energizing. It makes you brave in the face of oppression and it reminds us all that, together, we can accomplish great things. 

And we weren't alone. Not by a long shot. All across this Country, in this Nation of Immigrants, people stood up and marched for the promise of America. A million+ souls in Boston, millions more in Philadelphia, in New York City, in Chicago, in our beleaguered City of Angels, and in countless other venues large and small from Idaho to Miami.

The most delicious part? The pathetic spectacle in our Nation's Capital, as King Trump's military birthday parade was surely a disappointment to him, as it was poorly attended and low energy. The surest sign that the confluence of No Kings Day and his lackluster birthday parade (sad!) got under Trump's skin? By Sunday night, Trump had effectively declared war on Democrat-run cities, promising expanded ICE operations in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, and making clear (once again) that Trump's mass deportation agenda has nothing to do with making Americans safe and is instead motivated by his thirst to overwhelm and oppress those that stand in opposition to him. Saturday proved that the American people will rise united against tyranny, but we know that the road ahead will be long and difficult.

So how do we capitalize on this moment? What do we do with this energy? What's next?

Tonight, at 8:00 EST, Indivisible will be part of a national call to talk about all that was accomplished, and what the next steps will be. The No Kings movement also already has a whole host of activities, trainings and initiatives available to help you stay involved. Here in the Capital Region, Indivisible Albany is working to build on that sense of community and shared purpose that we all felt on Saturday. Of course, we'll always have an ever-changing series of events to participate in, but we're looking to increase our operations in every meaningful way, whether that is organizing demonstrations or rallies, or by expanding our charitable and volunteer engagement activities in all of our hometowns. No matter your interests or your skill set, we have various Committees where you can invest your energy. If you are particularly interested in building community across the Tri-City area, we encourage you to join our Volunteer and Community Outreach Committee, where we are looking for leaders to help create alliances with other local civic and charitable organizations. We are also hoping to increase our fundraising operations, and are looking for fiscally-minded individuals to help manage our Finance Committee. If you have a specific interest in working with our Volunteer or Finance Committees, please reach out to Indivisible Albany's Operations Lead, Leyla Kiosse, at leyla@indivisiblealbany.org.

And finally, if you really want to be involved, but aren't sure just how to do it, come to Indivisible Albany's July Membership Meeting on July 14 at the Guilderland Public Library.  We hope to see you there!

In Solidarity,

Indivisible Albany