Newsletter – June 13, 2025

KCfD Members,

We are excited to announce that Kentucky Citizens for Democracy is now part of Indivisible!

As a result of this partnership, we now have the ability to raise money to promote our organization, host events, conduct voter education drives, open a KCfD merch shop, and conduct a number of other activities that will take our group to a whole other level!

If you can, please consider donating by going to the link below. There are multiple forms of payment provided once you are on the page.

KCfD Donations

Thank you for your support!

No Kings Rally Saturday!

The other big event coming up this week is the No Kings Rally. Our group will be at the one in Shelbyville, KY, at the Stargazer Plaza (612 Main St, Shelbyville, KY 40065). This event is from 1-3 pm.

Speakers:

Monica Dean, Democratic candidate for Congress for the 4th District, will speak at 1:30 pm. Michael Slider and Alex LeBlanc from our group are also slated to speak.

These protests going on in hundreds of cities and towns across the country are a response to the huge military parade President Trump is hosting, supposedly to celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary, but coincidentally falls on Trump’s birthday.

This parade could cost American taxpayers anywhere between $25 and $45 million, by most estimates. This is just another red flag for a President who has been attempting to solidify power under the Executive Branch. It seems he would love nothing more than to rule as some kind of pseudo-king or dictator. Military parades have always been a hallmark of authoritarian regimes.

On top of this, it may not be the best time to be holding a military parade with the National Guard and U.S. Marines currently operating in Los Angeles and disrest occurring in other major cities as a backlash to ICE’s brazen actions.

Our Mission

If this is your first time visiting our newsletter, we break it down into the three areas of our mission: Educate, Elevate, Activate.

You will find a section in our newsletter for each mission component.

Our goal is to Educate and empower Kentuckians with knowledge about their rights and the workings of our government, enabling them to recognize and respond to threats to our democracy.

We Activate citizens to take action in defense of our Constitutional Republic. Through community organizing, peaceful demonstrations, and voter engagement initiatives, we encourage active participation in the democratic process.

We Elevate the voices of concerned citizens, amplify important issues, and lift our community’s commitment to democratic values.

Attention – Next General Meeting

Our next general meeting is next Thursday, June 19th, from 6:30 to 8 pm at St. James Episcopal Church in Pewee Valley, KY.

Please join us!

Hello KCfD!

Let me start by thanking everyone who made it to our inaugural Spill the Tea with KCfD! We had a fantastic time sharing our perspectives on what government is for anyways, the debates around which have shaped our civil society since our founding. It was great to see Nathan Bellows stop in to share his views on what serving in government should be about, as he runs to represent KY District 48. If you happen to live in his district, I encourage you to check him out, alongside all other candidates launching their campaigns. Remember, an informed citizenry is an empowered citizenry, and while a year and a half seems far down the road, midterms will be here before you know it! Also, keep an eye on future editions of our Newsletter for details about our next Spill the Tea event. I hope even more of our great members can make it out next time!

Without further ado, let’s jump into the excellent content provided by our very own Educate Committee.

Did You Know?

Did you know that one of the first constitutional crises was about a National Bank? As we have all seen in the Broadway hit Hamilton, when Alexander Hamilton proposed the First Bank of the United States, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison argued it was unconstitutional. Hamilton countered with the Necessary and Proper Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 18), claiming it allowed for implied powers. Should the federal government only do what the Constitution spells out—or is flexibility necessary to govern a modern country?

Clickbait

https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/know-your-rights-with-ice – Know your rights with ICE!

The Immigrant Defense Project (IDP) was founded over 20 years ago to combat an emerging human rights crisis: the targeting of immigrants for mass imprisonment and deportation.

https://immigrantjustice.org – Our advocacy and legal services teams keep families together, free people from the dangers of immigrant detention, and prevent asylum seekers and long-time community members from being deported based on unjust laws and illegal government actions.

https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/immigrants-rights#i-was-stopped-by-police-ice-or-border-patrol-while-in-transit & https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights – The fundamental constitutional protections of due process and equal protection embodied in our Constitution and Bill of Rights apply to every person, regardless of immigration status. The ACLU has excellent resources on a variety of issues, but we wanted to highlight their work around immigrant rights, given the current political climate.

Keeping it Constitutional

If Congress is “the People’s Branch,” then the presidency is often seen as the face of American government. Presidents are the ones we see on TV, the ones who speak for the nation in times of crisis, and the ones whose names define entire eras. But the Constitution wasn’t written with modern presidents in mind—it was written to prevent kings. Yet over time, the presidency evolved from its modest foundations into a powerful institution wielding immense policy influence.

We talk a lot about “checks and balances” in America – but how many of us actually know the rules? Article II of the Constitution lays out the powers and responsibilities of the President of the United States, and it’s both more limited and more open-ended than you might expect.

So how did we get from George Washington refusing a third term to presidents of both parties issuing sweeping executive orders and waging war without Congressional declarations? (Read the complete article here)

The Educate Committee has a lot of plans in the works to bring you, our members, even more helpful content in a wider variety of media formats. We can always use a helping hand to get things off the ground. If you want to get more involved in what we are doing or have helpful feedback on what you would like to see, please reach out and let us know! Thank you for continuing to be the light in the darkness.

Boycotts: Another Tool in the Nonviolent Resistance Toolkit

In the May 30th newsletter, I highlighted the tools of nonviolent resistance (protests and boycotts) with a focus on protests. In these past few days, the protests in LA have proven to be a textbook example of the pitfalls and benefits of protests as outlined in my article. It’s worth pointing out again the three following critical points:

• Nonviolent protests deny the opposition talking points and visuals that they will use to justify force and martial law (which takes us down the road to the suspension of constitutional rights). To that point, Trump has deployed US armed forces against American citizens and is toying with declaring martial law. Violence of any sort plays into their plan.
• Violent protests evoke negative emotional reactions in those whom we hope to persuade to our cause. Hurling rocks and burning cars are turnoffs to many, just as police shooting rubber bullets at reporters is. Violence from either side is counterproductive and dangerous.
• As mentioned in the last newsletter, research supports the use of nonviolent resistance in creating positive, democratic changes.

Protests like the upcoming June 14 No Kings Day serve to show opposition to the authoritarianism of the Trump administration to our fellow Americans, the world, and to the MAGA loyalists. This protest and the ones sure to follow keep reminding all that the current situation is unacceptable, unconstitutional, and un-American. Along with protests and continuing pressure through calls and contacts with leaders, boycotts are another tool in the nonviolent resistance toolkit.

Although financial impact is a desired outcome of a boycott, it’s not the primary one. The desired outcome of a boycott is to bring and sustain public attention to a company’s or organization’s undemocratic actions or policies to affect change. Damaging a brand’s image and reputation can prove to be a powerful impact of a boycott, with that harm reverberating to the stockholders and their pocketbooks.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott is an extraordinary example of what a boycott can do. More recently, the international boycott of the Tesla brand and the intermittent boycotts of Target have proven to be textbook examples of the financial and political power of boycotts. Sadly, too many of our corporations and organizations have acquiesced to the MAGA movement’s demands (e.g., elimination of DEI initiatives). Withholding our money and bringing attention to their cowardice are the aims.

In our newsletters and on our website, we post boycotts in the hope that all will join in these nonviolent ways of resistance. Please share these via your social media and in your social circles. Be sure to include why boycotts are needed and why they can work. Draw attention to injustice and challenge others to act. What we are facing is a once-in-a-lifetime challenge, and it’s going to require active and persistent resistance. Authoritarianism has never been defeated through passivity.

I think this message from Peter Coyote is a perfect follow-up to what Anita has been discussing this week. While I do not necessarily believe you need to wear “church clothes” to protests, I do believe in the core tenets of his message. Please read if you plan on attending any protests this weekend or in the future:

Please read and share before attending any protest:

Suggestions on protest from Zen priest, Peter Coyote:

“I’m watching the Los Angeles reaction to ICE raids with trepidation and regret.

Three years ago I taught a class at Harvard on the “theater of protest”— designed to help people understand why so many protests turn out to be Republican campaign videos working directly against the interests of the original protest.

A protest is an invitation to a better world.

It’s a ceremony.

No one accepts a ceremonial invitation when they’re being screamed at.

More important you have to know who the real audience of the protest is.

The audience is NEVER the police, the politicians, the Board of supervisors, Congress, etc.

The audience is always the American people, who are trying to decide who they can trust; who will not embarrass them.

If you win them, you win power at the box office and power to make positive change.

Everything else is a waste.

There are a few ways to get there:

1. Let women organize the event. They’re more collaborative. They’re more inclusive, and they don’t generally bring the undertones of violence men do.

2. Appoint monitors, give them yellow vests and whistles. At the first sign of violence, they blow the whistles, and the real protesters sit down.

Let the police take out their aggression on the anarchists and the provocateurs trying to discredit the movement.

3. Dress like you’re going to church. It’s hard to be painted as a hoodlum when you’re dressed in clean, presentable clothes.

They don’t have to be fancy; they just signal the respect for the occasion that you want to transmit to the audience.

4. Make your protest silent. Demonstrate your discipline to the American people. Let signs do the talking.

5. Go home at night. In the dark, you can’t tell the cops from the killers. Come back at dawn fresh and rested.

I have great fear that Trump’s staging with the National Guard and maybe the Marines is designed to clash with anarchists who are playing into his hands and offering him the opportunity to declare an insurrection.

It’s such a waste, and it’s only because we haven’t thought things through strategically.

Nothing I thought of is particularly original.

It was all learned by watching the early civil rights protests in the 50s and 60s.

It was the discipline and courage of African Americans that drew such a clear line in the American sand that people were forced to take sides, and that produced the Civil Rights Act.

The American people are watching, and once again, if we behave in ways that can be misinterpreted, we’ll see this explained to the public in Republican campaign videos benefiting the very people who started this.

Wake up.

Vent at home.

In public, practice discipline and self-control.

It takes much more courage.”

Zen teacher and author/narrator with Ken Burns

Note: Carry an American flag. As the administration creates a fake emergency to justify a state crackdown, it’s important to honor the values and vision of democracy for which we’re advocating.

When the Enquirer came for pics back in 2017, I smiled a big toothy grin and held a big flag as it felt so empowering and good to stand with my adult daughter, pastors, Franciscans, nuns, kids, parents, grandparents and some women from our women’s groups for the values we tried to pass on.

After the protest, we sang and marched to a church where we heard poignant witnesses of immigrants trying to build a better life for their families against insurmountable odds.

Many Marines, National Guardsmen, and vets are over on Threads and Substack expressing their disagreement over being used by this lawless administration.

If you are interested in joining our work on the Activate Committee, contact Executive Director, Michael Slider (contact@kycitizens.org).

Mr. Slider will also be at the next Oldham County fiscal court meeting on June 17th at 2 pm to talk to the Magistrates, once again, about our Detention Center’s continued relationship with ICE.

Our next Activate meeting will be on Tuesday, June 17th at 6:30 pm.

Hello all!

Hello all! First, we would like to welcome two new members to the committee, Laura Danielson and Cheri Kulik! Our next meeting will

Events!

If you have not saved the date already, please do so for our KY Citizens for Democracy Night Out, on Friday, June 20th at 6 PM at 3rd Turn Oldham Gardens! This is a family and pet-friendly establishment owned by like-minded folks! Please come spend a Friday night and meet other folks in our area! We would like to make this monthly, so the tentative date for our next event will be July 25th.

Ways to Participate Now:

Donate to Mission House food pantry

Join us at 3rd Turn on 6/20 or 7/25

We will be brainstorming more ideas on how to support our community in the face of repercussions from legislation, so if you have an idea, please let us know!

We would love more volunteers who want to help our community, or even ideas on how you think we could help, even if you can’t commit to being on the committee! If you are interested, please let us know!

June 14: No Kings National Protest Day

June 19: KCfD General Meeting – 6:30-8 pm – St. James Episcopal Church, Pewee Valley, KY

June 19 & 26: Indivisible Weekly Virtual Update 3-4:00 pm. Go to https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/773746/ to sign up

June 20: KCfD Night Out (Social Event) 6-8:00 pm- 3rd Turn Oldham Gardens

June 24-30: National Boycott of McDonald’s

Check our calendar on the KCfD website for more information about these events.