About 150 area residents showed up May 7 at the Richard Allen Train Station for the third weekly “We the People Wednesday Resistance Rally: Singing for Sanity.” The rally felt like a folk-music hootenanny populated by neighbors and their adorable, well-behaved dogs. The first rally occurred April 23 and drew about 125 participants.

The only elements missing at the train station were hippies, although many senior citizens in the crowd no doubt wore longer hair and held other placards decades ago. Some of the current crop of protest signs read, “No Kings, No Nazis,” “Presidency 4 Sale: Donor Pardons + Rewards Here,” “America is Not for Sale,” “We the People: Neighbors Resisting Tyranny,” “We love the Constitution,” and “We Love the Rule of Law.” Hat and lapel pins announced, “Granny’s Peace Brigade,” “Democracy or Destruction: Your Choice,” “I Didn't Vote for Him,” and “Women's Choice: Harris.”

All of the “Resistance Rallies” start out with local musicians leading protest songs. Last Wednesday,  Erdenheim singer/songwriter Meghan Cary — who has been performing at area venues for many years — voiced a stirring rendition of her composition “Sing Louder,” which contained the lyrics “Live what you love, live what you do, laugh with your friends, cry with them, too … Sing louder, sing stronger for all the world to hear.”

After the song, Cary told the crowd, “My mom was a tireless advocate for voting rights and for women's rights. As a human being, especially right now, it is imperative that we connect with our shared humanity. It is our responsibility to do so.”

Thinking globally, acting locally

Kadida Kenner, founding CEO of the New Pennsylvania Project, a nonprofit dedicated to getting more people to vote, said, “Our goal is to expand the electorate. There are now 1.2 million people in Pennsylvania who are eligible to vote but who are not even registered, and that number is 2.1 million, if you include the people who are about to be dropped off the voting rolls due to inactivity. You are powerful if you vote.

“Only 15 percent of high school kids who are eligible to vote in Pennsylvania are actually registered to vote. Dark money is coming here. Elon Musk is spending millions in Pennsylvania to get voters to vote 'No' on retention of Democratic judges. These are desperate times. There are so many attacks on our democracy. This is our last chance to save our Constitution … Nobody should be dissuaded from casting a ballot, while we still can.”

The prime mover behind the “Resistance Rallies,” which begin Wednesdays at 4 p.m. and last about an hour (or, until the last protester gets tired out), is Betsy Teutsch, an author and co-chair (with Ann Mintz) of the Mt. Airy chapter of Together Women Rise, a nonprofit working to empower girls and women and “achieve global gender equality.” Teutsch recruited seven other Mt. Airy activists to organize the weekly protests. 

“I really wanted a regular weekly local opportunity to protest and resist the innumerable, constant assaults on our democracy by the president and his cabinet,” Teutsch said. “Many Northwest Philly people are very active in politics and well-informed, but always heading down to Center City and to Cherry Hill for the Tesla protests seemed to drain local energy. It's important when resisting authoritarian leaders to build a strong community of neighbors. When everyone is isolated, and not seeing each other, it leaves people depressed, discouraged and passive. Each week, we have a few actions people can accomplish. People don't want to leave!”

Hannes Jarka-Sellers, another organizer, told us, “I live around the corner from Weavers Way Co-op. It's a neighborhood with many politically aware people, and I think we're building a local basis that can contribute to powerful resistance to the undoing of democracy. I'm heartened that local protests are happening around the country. It's important for this movement to be broadly based; we're still in a very early stage in that regard.”

Another Mt. Airy organizer, David Mosenkis, added, “I got involved because I was looking for a way to engage in resistance to the attempts to dismantle our democracy. I love the idea of coming together in joy and song to build community while we act to resist.”

According to fellow organizer Hope Yursa, “I liked the concept of bringing singing into our protests. I think it’s something that’s been missing in recent demonstrations. Further, I support the mission of these rallies, which is to build community, bring people together in a positive way, sharing information and taking action.”

For more information, visit wethepeopleweds.org. 

Len Lear can be reached at LenLear@chestnuthilllocal.com.