Why we rally

It's a day when we can define ourselves

I said, now, watch what you say, they’ll be calling you a radical
A liberal, oh, fanatical, criminal
Oh, won’t you sign up your name? We’d like to feel you’re acceptable
Respectable, oh, presentable, a vegetable
Oh, take, take, take it, yeah

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They’re already calling us “radical” and more: socialist, communist, “the pro-Hamas wing” of a political party organizing a “hate America rally.”

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful
A miracle, oh, it was beautiful, magical
And all the birds in the trees, well they’d be singing so happily
Oh, joyfully, oh, playfully watching me
But then they sent me away to teach me how to be sensible
Logical, oh, responsible, practical
And then they showed me a world where I could be so dependable
Oh, clinical, oh, intellectual, cynical

The hate America rally coincides with the government shutdown. The people who call protesters pro-Hamas are also saying the Democrats have shut down the government. The Democrats have not. They are, unusually, not bailing the Republicans out of a nightmare that is entirely of their own creation. For once, the Democrats are not being the adults, taking the reins of government back from the irresponsible children on the other side of the aisle.

For a change, the Democrats are putting on hold the habit of being sensible, logical, responsible, practical, dependable. If the Republicans want those qualities, they’ll have to find them within themselves. For a change.

"No Kings" rallies in Gardiner, N.Y., Kingston, N.Y., and Pittsburgh, Pa., June 2025

I was asked yesterday, “What do you tell people who say protesting doesn’t make a difference?” The person who asked was going to rally, in Kingston, N.Y.; she was trying to get others to go as well.

I said, It’s not about making a difference. It’s about doing the right thing.

What I had in mind was the fundamental divide in ethics, the two different kinds of theories of what’s the morally right thing to do. One is, do the thing that does the most good for the most people; that is, maximize utility. The other type of theory says, actions are inherently right or wrong. Lying is wrong. Murder is wrong. Abducting people because their first language isn’t English is wrong. Withholding food from people who are starving is wrong.

Only one of these focuses on “making a difference.” To ask “what difference will it make” is to presume the first type theory. I wanted to remind my friend that there’s an entirely different way of looking at right and wrong that doesn’t focus on making a difference. In that way of thinking, there’s a bunch of rules of conduct. We know them. Sure, once in a while they come into conflict. But generally we know in our gut what’s right, most of the time.

How bad, how good does it need to get?
How many losses? How much regret?
What chain reaction would cause an effect?
Makes you turn around
Makes you try to explain
Makes you forgive and forget
Makes you change
Makes you change

Are you so upright, you can’t be bent
If it comes to blows?
Are you so sure you won’t be crawling?
If not for the good, why risk falling?
Why risk falling?

If everything you think you know
Makes your life unbearable
Would you change?
Would you change?

I’m on a dating site where people list their political leanings. Liberal. Moderate. Conservative. I stop reading when I see Conservative. But for those who say Moderate, I want to ask, What will it take? What more do you need? How bad does it have to get?

“Toss me a cigarette, I think there’s one in my raincoat”
“We smoked the last one an hour ago”
So I looked at the scenery; she read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field

“Kathy, I’m lost”, I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They’ve all come to look for America
All come to look for America

We rally to see that there are 5, 10, maybe even 15 million other people who agree with us enough to make signs, to take the bus downtown, to set aside a day. We look for the America that isn’t full of greed and lies and cruelty, and power for its own sake. We’re looking for the America that keeps bending in the direction of justice.

There are times when all the world’s asleep
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man
Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned?
I know it sounds absurd
Please tell me who I am

I know it sounds absurd, but I think we rally in order to make sure we’re the people we thought we were.

Lyrics from “The Logical Song” by Supertramp (1979); “America” by Simon & Garfunkel (1968); “Change” by Tracy Chapman (2005).