Another Pleasant Valley Saturday

I'll be spending my Saturday doing a lot of normal suburban cusp of Summer sorta stuff, and something that's of the moment yet completely out of the ordinary.

My wife is visiting with her recently widowed mother, and my kids don't live here any longer, so I'm on my own. Me and the dog, that is. We'll get up and go to the Farmer's Market, where I'll grab some good cheese, gourmet dog treats, and whatever I feel like making for dinner. Got some yardwork to do. Need to clean out the garage, too.

In the late afternoon, I'll pay my respects at one of my soccer kids' graduation party. Known her since she was 12 and I coached her in club soccer. Passage of time and all that.

Between those comfortable first-world bookends, I'll be at a No Kings rally at the courthouse in town. I expect it to be civilized and incident-free - our burg is far from the epicenter of ICE enforcement, and we're the sort of affluent (and white) folk that the administration seems not interested in punching down on. I kinda think it'd be good for the overall movement if a group like mine gets roughed up a little bit, because it'd show conclusively that the neo-Gestapo will come after anyone and wake up the still-slumbering-into-autocracy masses. 

I don't go to show that I'm some sort of unusually patriotic or political fella. I just go because in the final reckoning, I want people to know which side I'm on, and that I'm willing to do more than blog about it. Even if it's just a little more.

Bringing the spirit of this guy with me, too. This is poetry. Not loud, not braggadocios, just real in a way a big segment of American men used to be. My Dad wasn't a Southern man by any stretch, but I believe he'd see his sense of decency and right and wrong echoed here.

🧵 1/4 This video was too long & needed to be broken into 4 sections Despite that, this Southern man’s message to his fellow southern men & “not the politicians & bootlickers pretending to know bourbon from Boone’s Farm, the good ol’ boys that can bait a hook & throw a punch” is worth the listen!

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— Guardrails of Democracy (@demguardrails.bsky.social) June 13, 2025 at 7:01 PM

It ain't great right now, our Republic. It may never be the same. But as long as enough of us stand up and say no, it's got a chance to be.