Lexington’s No Kings event drew hundreds, if not more, to the Fayette County courthouse square on Saturday.
The march was one of thousands across the country in protest of the domestic and foreign policies of President Donald Trump, now in the second year of his second term in office.
Kat Stills, who lives in Madison County, attended the earlier rally in Richmond before coming to Lexington with her dog, Zeus.
Stills, who grew up in Missouri but has lived in Kentucky for decades, said she hopes voter participation will increase.
“More people are starting to realize that their vote does make a difference, and hopefully, with this movement, more people will come out and realize that if you don't vote, you're not going to get what you want,” she said. “You know your life is busy, yes, but this is something that affects your life for more than a day.”
Shannon Pantano, who came to the event with her son and her mom, said she’s mad about too many things to put on one sign. Hers, though, did include an image of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“I'm here because I think it's important to fight for everyone, not just myself, but for the people who can't come here and speak for themselves. There's so many things that are happening that it's hard to put all on one sign, all the things that I'm mad about,” she said. “So I'm here today to just remind everybody that we need to speak up. We need to say something. It's so important. And if we don't say anything, then we're allowing it to happen.”
Pantano’s mother, Candace Brunk, served in the Air Force.
“I vowed to uphold the Constitution against all enemies, and when our government has become our enemy, that's a sad day,” she said. “It's a very light mood out here. Everybody's happy, and we're all having a good time, but it's a very serious message when the people we elected are not doing the jobs we elected them for. We have to say something. We have to be here. We have to write letters, we have to vote, we have to speak, we have to support people who have it worse than we do.”
Pantano and Brunk said there was a price to pay for not speaking out. They cited the two Minneapolis residents who were shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers earlier this year.
“We can all get in trouble standing out here today, but if we hide, then it just keeps going,” Brunk said. “As Shannon said, we're allowing it to happen. So you have to decide, are you willing to get in trouble? Are you willing to take that risk?”
Since late last year, U.S. troops have been involved in operations in Venezuela and Iran. Protesters, including Brunk, wanted to support the troops but avoid unnecessary deaths. Two Kentucky service members have lost their lives during the operation in Iran in recent weeks.
“And our military takes that risk every single day, because you never know where you're going to be sent,” Brunk said. “You never know what's going to happen. They're taking the risk. So I support them whatever they choose to do, but do hope wiser heads prevail and get us out of places we don't need to be because we don't want people dying for no reason.”
As Brunk noted, there was a lighter side to the event. Don Willoughby of Lexington carried a poster of a lemon pound cake. He said plenty of people asked him about it.
“It represents freedom of speech from the whole Afroman versus the Adams County Sheriff Department defamation suit where Afroman won his case after they kicked down his door and ate his pound cake.”
Afroman, the rapper, was sued by sheriff’s deputies in Ohio when he mocked them in a song after they broke down his door and searched his house. Afroman prevailed in his lawsuit, and First Amendment advocates said it was a victory for freedom of speech.
That includes freedom to protest – which thousands of Kentuckians chose to do on Saturday.
