One paddle at a time: Kalamazoo rallies to rescue democracy
At Kalamazoo’s Democracy Fest, community members were urged to move beyond protest and pick up a paddle — taking local action to defend democracy together.
Second Wave Media | Mark Wedel
Published September 10, 2025
KALAMAZOO, MI —People can protest, they can stand on a busy street with a sign, maybe march and chant.
But then what? You can show anger about what’s happening in Washington, DC, but what are you going to do about it?
The crowd that packed half of Bronson Park looked willing to do something about it at Sept. 9th’s Democracy Fest. Organized by Indivisible of Greater Kalamazoo, the rally focused on local advocacy, the local impacts of the Trump administration, and the need to vote for candidates “committed to the fundamentals… the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the rule of law,” as Judy Sarkozy says.
Up what creek without a paddle?
To put things in context, this was the Sunday afternoon just after President Trump seemingly threatened war against Chicago in a post, and just before his alleged birthday doodle to Jeffrey Epstein came out.
People in the park were fired up. There were some protest signs, American flags, peace symbols, and LGBTQ+ rainbows. But most in the audience were there to sit and listen, rather than demonstrate.
Sarkozy, founding baker behind Sarkozy Bakery and all-around Kalamazoo community figurehead, spat fire in her speech to end the day’s line-up.
She started off with income disparity, hitting the “super rich” who “can rent Venice for their wedding” and “take rockets out into space for an afternoon” while “some people die in mobile homes during heat waves when they don’t have enough AC.” She hit those who’ve “stolen the dreams from our children” by halting progress to control climate change, as well as anti-science politicians and politicians bought by corporations.
“We can protest,” she says, and “must not stop protesting… But let’s also work to get rid of everybody in Washington who does not have a radical plan for changing how the government of the United States functions, because it hasn’t functioned for the good of the population for 40 years!”
“Don’t elect people old like me,” the octogenarian says to laughs in the audience. “Don’t re-elect anybody who voted for that @#& bill (the “Big Beautiful Bill”). Don’t elect anyone who doesn’t understand the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the rule of law!”
Earlier, local fiction author Bonnie Jo Campbell was carrying around a large paddle like she was looking for someone to smack.
In her speech, she says, we’re “up sh– creek,” but we’ve all got paddles. “We are in a democracy lifeboat, and each one of us has a paddle.”
She argues that while the current MAGA leaders act like “Batman villains,” Democrats need to turn away from infighting, and that leftists, liberals, and moderates need to work together.
“Bernie Sanders is paddling like crazy… Elissa Slotkin gets right into the mud in the intelligence and defense committees. James Talarico of Texas paddles as a follower of Christ’s teachings. And every Republican who has turned away from the dark side is welcome to join us in this fight,” Campbell says.
“Not just about Trump”
Should we throw the bums out? Or unite behind politicians across the spectrum who’re working to stop the MAGA agenda?
Ken Greschak, organizer for Indivisible Kalamazoo, says they’re not pushing for any specific type of candidate. “We’re definitely a progressive organization, and we don’t hide from that at all,” he tells us before the rally.
Is it an anti-Trump rally? “It’s really not just about Trump. It’s what he is trying to empower, this authoritarian, autocratic presidency. A Congress that is just letting it happen, a Supreme Court that is empowering it. And the dismantling of our democratic institutions,” Greschak says.
Candidates were intentionally not invited to speak on the Bronson Park stage. Kalamazoo County Clerk Meredith Place was the only office-holder to speak, since the rally was about democracy and the need for free and fair elections, Greschak says. If the clerk had been “a Republican, we’d probably have a Republican on stage.”
Any candidate or elected official was welcome to attend and speak with the voters off-stage, from U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga to State Senator Sean McCann, he says. They should “be amongst the people.”
But “even the Democrats” who show up would have to be ready for “some pretty powerfully directed questions, even at our own progressive candidates.”
Local focus, local impacts
Huizenga was not seen in the crowd, but McCann was there chatting with voters. The local focus of the rally was reflected by our local politicos, who mingled, like State Representative Julie Rogers, Mayor David Anderson, Kalamazoo City Commissioners Don Cooney and Chris Praedel.
Speakers focused on Kalamazoo, Michigan, and local impacts from federal changes:
County Clerk Place spoke to the crowd to assure that, locally, “our elections are strong, secure, and trustworthy.” She asked the public to help keep them that way. “The strength of our democracy doesn’t just rest in offices like mine. It rests in you,” she says, asking for citizens to sign up to be election inspectors, “Republicans, Democrats, and independents working side by side.”
Susan Rosas, CEO of the Kalamazoo YWCA, says Kalamazoo community orgs are getting hit by what’s happening in Washington. She told the crowd, “Since January 2025, under the Trump administration, the Kalamazoo community has lost $51 million in federal social service funding almost overnight.” The cuts have been to programs for housing, food security, education, victim services, treatment services… “The list goes on.”
Cee Maul of OutFront Kalamazoo spoke on efforts to prevent transgender healthcare for teens, and the Michigan House’s vote to control which bathrooms they use in academic institutions. Plus, there’s the unusual, new stance on gun control — to ban trans gun ownership. “The Trump administration wants to take away my Second Amendment rights to defend myself simply because I am transgender,” Maul says with anger, which hits “in such a visceral way.”
Jace Bylenga, West Michigan coordinator for the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, spoke on the coal-burning Consumers Energy plant at Port Sheldon Township. The plant has been burning coal on Lake Michigan since 1962, but was set to be shut down. “So the Trump administration declared a fake energy emergency,” and ordered the plant to keep burning, he says.
Daniel Oropeza of the United Farm Workers Foundation spoke on the “over 47,000 farm workers who come to Michigan every year to do the job, once again, that nobody wants to do,” and how that work is threatened locally by ICE’s 287(g) program, which deputizes local law enforcement to round up migrants suspected of being in the country illegally.
It’s about the Union
Mariah Bryant of Voters Not Politicians spoke on getting corporate money out of politics. And Portage physician Dr. Allan Wilke, after describing life-threatening changes to medical practice, got the biggest boos out of the crowd by mentioning the initials “RFK Jr.”
It was a long lineup of speakers, opened by a surprise guest.
We managed to interview former President Abraham Lincoln to get his take before he delivered his opening address. (Actually, Ron Carley, professional Lincoln presenter, but let’s pretend.)
What does he think about the conflicts we’re having these days?
“I think we need to put aside our differences and work towards saving the Union. You know, 170 years have passed, but we’re still in the same situation. It’s not North versus South, it’s Republican versus Democrat. We need to get together and work better,” Lincoln (portrayed by Carley) says.
“I think we need to put aside our differences and work towards saving the Union. You know, 170 years have passed, but we’re still in the same situation. It’s not North versus South, it’s Republican versus Democrat. We need to get together and work better,” Lincoln (portrayed by Carley) says.
Original Link: https://secondwavemedia.com/one-paddle-at-a-time-kalamazoo-rallies-to-rescue-democracy