Riverdale shows up for democracy

To the editor,

It’s been reported that seven million people attended “No Kings” marches and rallies throughout all 50 states. Local police estimated that 600 attended the rally in Riverdale at Seton Park. Amazing!

I still remember participating in giant anti-war marches in Washington, as well as the Impeach Nixon march. Richard Nixon was a horrible person and a crook. In fact, he was the most crooked president in American history. Until now.

It’s funny. I’ve always believed that things would get better in our country, and to a significant degree, they have. But if you told me back then that one day our beloved country would have a president who makes Nixon’s horrible actions look like child’s play, and who would be leading America into authoritarianism, I would have thought you were delusional. What’s even more shocking is that a solid 40 percent of the population has stood with Trump all the way.

Trump, Vance and Trump’s flunky House Speaker Mike Johnson, referred to the No Kings events as anti-American, or the “hate America” rally, or used other outrageous descriptions. Really? Let’s examine the record to see who is anti-American.

We have seen masked ICE agents and other federal officials on the streets of our cities. Some of them have disappeared people, grabbed children, or simply terrorized innocent civilians because of the way they look or speak. Is there a difference between masked and unidentified ICE agents, masked Hamas terrorists and those who wore white hoods? There is no difference in concealing their identities and terrorizing people. Unidentifiable, masked ICE agents roaming our cities is, in my opinion, anti-American.

You know what else I think is anti-American? The Republican so-called “big beautiful bill,” which will take away health care from tens of millions of Americans and explode the costs for millions of others; pardoning the criminals who were convicted in the failed coup of Jan. 6, 2021; calling people who assaulted police “patriots,” and then going after those who actually sought justice against the insurrectionists; rolling out the red carpet for Trump’s buddy, Vladimir Putin — the fascist dictator of Russia who is responsible for the deaths of many tens of thousands of people in the war he launched against Ukraine.

How about Trump’s attempts to bend to his will universities, cultural institutions, the media, law firms, and the Federal Reserve? What about his efforts to force Republican-controlled states to engage in mid-decade redistricting of congressional lines in a transparent attempt to rig the 2026 midterm elections to maintain a Republican majority in the House of Representatives? He also has been known to send the National Guard to American cities to normalize a military presence — for who knows what — on our streets, rolling back vaccine requirements, restricting voting rights and attempting to gut the Voting Rights Act and reversing the progress made during the Biden presidency on climate change.

The list goes on and on. While very few MAGA Republicans seem to have a problem with all this — and so many behave like members of a cult, like lemmings — I have faith that more of them will wake up.

I’m proud that our community came out in large numbers to Seton Park to do the most American thing of all: peaceful protest. I was proud to join my colleagues, Congressman Ritchie Torres and Council Member Eric Dinowitz, along with a large contingent from the Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club and many other Democrats, independents members of my shul, Riverdale Temple, members of other congregations, churches, houses of worship and hundreds of other people from Riverdale and beyond. Thank you to Helen Krim and others who organized our local event.

Yes, I have attended rallies, marches and protests for decades — except now, three generations of my family joined our neighbors to rally and protest. I don’t consider Trump, Vance and Johnson the real Americans at all. But the 600-plus people at Seton Park sure are.

I guess after all these years, I’m just an all-American kid!

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz