Over 370 people turned out to attend the No Kings protest in Presque Isle, Maine on Saturday.

I was seriously impressed with the turnout at this protest. In a part of the country marked by Trump flags (even long after he won the election), giant Trump banners, and the occasional Confederate symbolism, it was sincerely heartening to see so many people gathering under a banner of inclusion and peaceful expression.

Presque Isle joins the ranks of many other cities across America in smashing attendance records this weekend for what was simultaneously a celebration of free speech and a peaceful expression of what should be painfully obvious: we are dissatisfied and angry at the Trump administration for it’s authoritarian tactics in suppressing free speech and other fundamental tenants of the United States which negatively impacts all Americans, not just the “radical left.”

Braving the cold October air, people of all ages turned up to make their voices heard and their dissent known. On Saturday, October 18th, 2025, a protest organized by the Aroostook Organization for Change was held at the corner of North and Main Street in Presque Isle alongside nearly 7 million like-minded people across the nation. By all accounts this was one of the largest nation-wide protests in American history.

When I say people of all ages attended, I mean everyone from little kids, jumping around and having a great time at their first organized protest, to elderly folks who have seen many presidents come and go and are now hitting the streets with walkers and blankets to speak out against this president who they feel poses a unique existential threat to our democracy and way of life.

An Inflated Sense of Purpose

One of the things I was most excited about (besides fighting for the survival of democracy and all that) was the prospect of seeing people in inflatable costumes. I was not disappointed.

Frogs, axolotls, t-rexes (Tyranny-saurus Wrecks?), unicorns, pumpkins and others peppered the nearly quarter-mile presence of the protest on Main Street. It was glorious to behold.

If you’re curious about what effect the inflatables have had on the No Kings movement (as I was), listen to an expert in the field of psychology weigh in on the subject. While some protest mascots are primarily a means of grabbing people’s attention, humor, especially satire, has long been proven to be an effective tool for improving the quality of engagement and disarming harmful projection — notably Donald Trump’s very intentional labeling of peaceful protesters as “radical left terrorists.”

Opposing Viewpoints

Of course, the protest was not without it’s detractors. One in particular interrupted a speech by local city council write-in candidate Robert Kipp, declaring the assemblage of people representing anti-dictatorship to be a violation of his right to free speech and was therefore “tyranny.”

Others, such as a man who stopped to talk to Lucas Cyr and I for a few seconds while we chatted about our camera gear, voiced concerns about what they perceived were the misguided ideals of the left.

“How many people around here you think are working?” he asked.

It being Saturday, Lucas’ obvious reply was “Today?”

“Or work period!” the man clarified. And there it was. The conservative answer to any thought of empathy and self-sacrifice for the common good — they must be a bunch of lazy free-loading losers looking for a handout.

A Time to Engage

I met with several people at the event who have engaged with my content on social media, which was a great feeling. From the town hall meeting with Graham Platner in Caribou to the Hands Off protest earlier this year, there was no shortage of civic-minded people who share an interest in voicing their concerns and chose to participate and engage in some form of activism in our communities.

I’m glad to know that we are not being silent and we are not consenting to kingly behavior in our government.