Welcome, fellow discontents!
WCDP Chair Bill Allen speaks to the crowd at Cadillac Cares Day of Action.
It is so important that you are here. When the date of this rally was announced, I heard from and read posts by many people that, while they are concerned about the direction America is headed right now, it is going to be Easter weekend and they felt it was a holiday. A time to relax. A time for family. So, they were choosing not to attend. Let me tell you that right now, many families in America are hurting. They cannot celebrate. They cannot relax. All of you here today get it. Action cannot be taken only when it is convenient. Danger does not go away on its own. These are troubling times.
But my reaction to the planned date was different. I remember when, as a classroom teacher in the year 2000, we gave parents the right to withhold their kids from school on April 20th. Why? April 19th, 1995, was the Oklahoma City bombing—unimaginably tragic. April 20th, 1999, was the shooting at Columbine—one of the toughest days in my teaching career. The Branch Davidian tragedy occurred on April 19th, 1985. April 20th was the date in 1871 that Ulysses Grant signed the Ku Klux Klan Act, enforcing the 14th Amendment, and has been vilified by white supremacist groups ever since. April 20th, 1889, was Adolf Hitler’s birthday. Many in America were afraid in 2000 that terrorist groups or individuals would use this date as a day of action—a date to rally around. Many kids stayed home from school on that day. And by the fall of the following year, on September 11th, 2001, the worst terrorist attack on American soil would occur. Tough times to be a teacher. Welcome to the 21st century. And January 6th has taught us that the threat of domestic terrorism is as real as it ever has been.
Right now, though your stomach may be queasy, your heart sad, and your head is swimming for other reasons—tariff wars, the firing of thousands of government workers, inflation fears, concerns about the health of pregnant women, attacks on Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, the right to vote for millions of Americans, the protection of trans and gays, the mass deportation of immigrants, the protection of education, healthcare for veterans and millions of other people living in America, the exploitation of public land—and the list goes on and on. It can be numbing. But we who are gathered here today cannot let it numb and paralyze us. We have to realize that this is exactly how you are supposed to feel.
Former advisor to Donald Trump and convicted felon Steve Bannon said it: “We are going to flood the zone,” and that is exactly what has happened to create chaos fatigue. Friends, we have to realize that Donald Trump is not the architect—he is the tool. Notice Bannon says clearly, “We are going to flood the zone.” This is a movement. There are millions of others. The architects of this have been waiting for years, for decades, even for centuries. Because in their minds, there are people in America who just do not matter. In fact, those people not only do not matter—they are a threat. A drain on the economic well-being of those who do matter. They are given labels like alien, scum, baby killers, communists, losers. Donald Trump even called those within the Democratic Party “vermin.” “Vermin.” The strategy is to dehumanize “those people” so that actions can be taken against “them” guilt-free. In fact, take time to listen to how some media personalities, politicians, neighbors, friends, or even family refer to others by using the label “them” or “those people.” We each have to call that out!
It is fitting that we are meeting on Easter weekend because I do not recall Jesus referring to others in this way. Yet many of those who claim to follow his path are leading this movement. But I am not here to sort out the religious or ethnic causes of this flood, even though they are clearly present. Rather, let’s consider the legal challenges that have been thrust upon us as a result of this conscious effort to split America into “us” and “them.” To do so, I would like to turn to the U.S. Constitution—specifically, the 5th Amendment, which states that “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law,” and the 14th Amendment goes on to require the same of states. (Hold up the placard.) Notice the Constitution specifically uses the word “person.” Not “citizen.” Not “American.” Not “Christian.” Not “man.” No person.
Nor does the Constitution deny due process to “criminals,” to “illegal immigrants,” to “drug users,” to “losers,” to “scum,” to “vermin,” nor any other group. All persons in America have the right to due process. It is what distinguishes us as a democracy from other forms of authoritarian rule in the world today. It distinguishes us from fascist Germany and Italy and Japan in the 1930s. But that is not the case presently. Some persons, in fact hundreds of persons, have been denied that right. They have been snatched off the street by masked “agents,” taken into custody, deported outside of the country, and are currently imprisoned abroad—all without the opportunity for due process. Please, cut through all of the clatter and make this the one thing that you focus on. For if this is allowed, straight out, democracy is dead. Straight out, those who have been waiting to “flood the zone” will win and bring in a nation of tyrants who will decide how you and I should live.
“When they came for the socialists I was not a socialist so I did not speak up,
when they came for the unionists I was not a unionist so I did not speak up,
when they came for the Jews I was not a Jew so I did not speak up,
when they came for the immigrants I was not an immigrant so I did not speak up,
when they came for transgenders I did not speak up,
when they came for liberals I did not speak up,
when they came for journalists I did not speak up,
when they came for lawyers I did not speak up,
when they came for professors I did speak up,
when they came for atheists I did not speak,
and now that they are coming for me there is no one left to speak.” (adapted from Martin Niemöller, German Pastor)
Make no mistake, this administration has already promised retribution. It will not stop on its own. It is being carried out in front of our eyes. And it is all coming together around this person, Kilmar Garcia. As many of you are aware, he was kidnapped from his car while his kids were in the back seat, taken into custody, put on a plane, and sent to El Salvador where hundreds of other people have been sent without due process and are languishing in prison. Imagine that for a minute. We are paying El Salvador tens of millions of dollars to house people indefinitely—put in dungeons with no recourse, not convicted of crimes, no day in court, no out date. And Donald Trump has vowed to send more—even U.S. citizens, if need be—in the same manner. Every court, even the U.S. Supreme Court, has ordered their return. At this time, Donald Trump and his administration are ignoring these court orders. This is where we are. The President of the United States is openly refusing to follow the law. And millions support this because it will only be “those people” who will suffer.
Can you see why my stomach churns and why sleeping at night is a chore? The right of habeas corpus—to be confronted by the government with evidence and witnesses against you—goes back to the Magna Carta of 1215. This is the only right we are specifically guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. All others were established within the Bill of Rights. This is what all Western nations understand. The right to due process is derived from the notion that the individual is more important than the state. That people matter. And now, finally, all people matter—to include women, Native Americans, Blacks, and other people of color. Even youth are afforded the right of due process.
Presently, we only have our voice — and in 2026, our right to vote. But today our voice must be heard. It must be shouted on every street corner. It must be uttered at every dinner table. In every pool hall. At every card game. On every golf course. In every lunchroom. It must be talked about with our children, because our children and grandchildren are counting on us to not be silent. They have no voice. Use tomorrow—Easter Sunday—and the days moving forward to use your voice to call attention to the danger we face.
Start with your elected officials. Hound them. Confront them. Direct them to do their job and protect all persons living in America. They may be the last guardrail standing. And it is working. The tide is turning. The evil is becoming exposed. So, let’s continue to move forward together. Thank you for coming out today.
To paraphrase Lincoln, many will forget what has been said here, but will forever remember what was done here.