20251021 STAND Newsletter – Aftermath of No Kings 2
What’s new with STAND
We’re famous! You should be proud of that – make sure you share it around!
Action NOW!
We’re taking a big breath. It’s been a busy few months. Come out tomorrow, October 22nd, at 5:30pm to STAND In a Pub (SIP) with us and reflect on a couple of months of intense organization and execution. We’ll see you at The Marlay House.
It’s been a while since we met for a general meeting! We’ve got our eyes on November 15th in the afternoon. The flyer confirming it will be out soon – keep an eye on facebook.
Dear Friends,
Let me quickly remind you of the past 2 months at STAND. On August 20th, we met at Marlay House to drink a pint and talk about our upcoming celebration of peace month in September. We participated in a vigil a few days later remembering our neighbors who have been disappeared over the past 9 months, before launching into our peace month with a community dinner and documentary viewing on September 6th. Then we mobilized hard, holding STAND for Peace on the 20th where we invited community, advocate groups, and marginalized community members to gather for an afternoon of celebration, fellowship, and storytelling. The storytelling tent we launched at STAND for Peace has now been to three locations since that day. On October 4th we collaborated in solidarity with 25 different activist organizations across Atlanta for Unite in Light. For those keeping count, that’s 8 actions in about 7 weeks.
And then we took to Decatur square on Saturday for NO KINGS 2: Democracy Rising. As we did previously, we successfully took a day of national action and made it our own – leaning into the values-forward, accessible, family-friendly atmosphere that has characterized much of our mass action. Despite not advertising on the central NO KINGS website, our event drew roughly three thousand participants who all showed up to defend our democracy. We stretched people four-fifths of a mile on the sidewalks of Decatur, surrounding the square, with 500 people still waiting to march. We watched the young and old, black and white, gay and straight, rich and poor, cis and trans, immigrant and native members of our community come together in a moment of solidarity. It was a truly beautiful expression of humanity. It was MLK’s beloved community that you could see and touch.
That’s 9 actions in two months for our little group growing out of Decatur. Thank you for all of your work – it mattered. Your effort in this matters, and you deserve a beer. That’ll make it a round 10. I hope to see you all tomorrow.
STANDing in awe of all you’ve done,
Matt
