"No Kings" is...

Not Enough

Jonathan & John at the “Hands Off” protest April 5, 2025 two months before the first “No King’s Day” protest.

I have been thankful to be able to participate in several protests of the present administration’s policies, including all three No King’s Day gatherings.

Still, I don’t think it’s enough. Do you?

Reading through the Bible: Judges 19-21/Luke 7:18-50

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit. (Judges 21:25)

People who make a habit of referring to the Bible, sometimes suggest that we need to get back to those good old days.

Those who actually read it, know better.

The good old days end at the beginning (Genesis 3). At the end (Revelation 20), we have some indication that there will be good new days ahead…but not in ours, or anyone else’s, life time.

We are, instead, in those days…and in those days, in our day, people have a tendency to do as they see fit..with disastrous consequences.

The last three chapters of Judges describe a time in Israel’s history when they have No Kings. Chapter 19 begins with the phrase. Chapter 21 ends the whole book with it.

The text inbetween “no kings” reads like a dystopian novel, with “parental discretion advised…”

A Levite, a priest, a man of God, who should know better, takes a concubine-a slave wife. Her family value rests simply on her ability to satisfy her Levite master sexually and give him children in the process (not unlike black women slaves with their white masters in our history as a country).

The concubine (who never gets a name in the history) has the gall to leave her Levite master and return to her own family. The Levite wants his “property” back. He goes to take from her family and back into captivity (not unlike immigrants taken from their families and placed in detention centers today).

It gets worse.

The concubines’ father and the Levite haggle over whether the Levite can take her back. The father relents.

On their way back home, the Levite stops in an Israelite city called Gibeah. It could just as well be named Sodom and Gemorrah. Rather than being hospitable (a life or death value for travelers in those days) the city turns bestial. The Levites concubine gets gang raped and killed.

It gets worse.

After they brutally kill the concubine, the Levite (I’m sorry to have to include what it describes in the account) the Levite cuts up her body into twelve pieces and sends those bloody parts to the twelve tribes of Israel.

In those days there are No Kings….Their brutal lesson, however, reminds us that simply having No Kings…is not enough to sustain a civil society.

Writing…

It’s not enough then. It’s not enough now.

If everyone of us does what seems right in our own eyes. If all of us are only looking out for number one. It won’t matter if we have a king or not.

It’s not enough, on July 4, 1776 for us to Declare our Independence. We must also declare the causes which impel (us) to the separation.

It’s not enough for us, on September 17, 1787 to point to the problems of being ruled by one person. We the People must determine for ourselves what “Constitutes” for the Unitied States…a more perfect Union.

Then and now, No King’s Day protests, are not enough.

Building…

In my attached picture, John’s sign explains itself: No King. No Crown. We won’t bow down.

Mine might need more explanation (kind of like everything I write). Why CORY-Nation followed by an x’d out Coronation?

On March 31, 2025 Senator CORY Booker starts a speech on the Senate floor that lasts for 25-hours and 5-minutes. In preparation for his speaking on Monday, Booker stops eating on Friday and stops drinking Sunday night.

Senator Cory Booker fasts to avoid poddy breaks during his record breaking speech. Still, it’s not enough.

I believe that Cory fasts because he wants a more perfect union. He speaks for over 25 hours because he wants a more perfect union that his predecessor Strom Thurmond who speaks for 24 hours against the Civil Rights Act.

Cory, as a self identified Christian, may have times when he fasts for a more perfect union with God…as do Christians during Lent and Muslims during Ramadan.

As a citizen and Senator, however, I believe that he fasts to establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, (preamble of the Constitution)

Hence my sign. Preventing a coronation is not enough. We need not just a CORY-nation….We need a nation of individuals willing to put our first names first in establishing justice. We need a a country where we the people make the sacrifices necessary to establish a more perfect union.

No Kings…is not enough.

Still…We the people…just might BE.