The real ‘No Kings Day’
On July 4th, throngs of people will line the sidewalks of downtown Wakefield, but they won’t be holding “No Kings” signs.
No, this crowd will be proudly celebrating their country’s founding and the brave men who fought for independence from a real monarch.
What a difference a quarter of a millennium makes.
In 1775, patriots with real grievances revolted against an actual crowned head who was imposing his will from across the sea. George III was a real king, not some trumped-up excuse for a weekly al-fresco coffee klatch.
Now, weekend warriors gather on Main Street holding signs like “NO KINGS IN AMERICA SINCE 1776,” as they flatter themselves that some parallel exists between their actions and the brave rebels that threw off real tyranny two and a half centuries ago.
Nobody’s buying it.
The Founding Fathers and the American rebels that fought in the militias 250 years ago were men who came from all walks of life. They were blacksmiths, butchers, carpenters, cobblers, farmers and merchants.
The current Saturday morning demonstrators are largely women and retired teachers. (The American Federation of Teachers is one of the coalition of groups backing the nationwide “No Kings” protests.)
There’s nothing new here. The current president is far from the first to be likened to a monarch. Some of us are old enough to remember political cartoons depicting the second President Bush as “King George.” The playbook never changes. That’s why it’s hard for people to take these protests seriously. It’s all theater, and we’ve seen this show too many times before.
The Saturday morning “Wakefield and Friends Protests” have been going on in Wakefield Square since at least March. Fun’s fun, but there’s such a thing as the Law of Diminishing Returns. As the old song goes, “How can we miss you when you won’t go away?” 
But be of good cheer, Wakefield. The crowds lining the downtown streets to celebrate America’s liberation from a true monarchy 249 years ago will vastly outnumber the pretenders standing on the corner on any given Saturday morning.
That’s because most people know there’s much more about the United States worth celebrating than there is to complain about.
Happy Fourth and God bless America!
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[This column originally appeared in the July 3, 2025 Wakefield Daily Item.]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Photography, Politics, Wakefield | 3 Comments
Tags: America, American Revolution, celebtation, Dan Hicks, Donald J. Trump, England, fireworks, Founding Fathers, Fourth of July, George W. Bush, Humor, Independence Day, July 4, July Fourth, King George III, Mark Sardella, monarch, No Kings, Opinion, Parade, patriots, Politics, President, Revolutionary War, teachers, Uncle Sam, United States, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
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Mark Sardella 
Excellent column, Mark. But I am concerned about a rising imperial judiciary. That needs to be addressed and soon!
Excellent!! It’s been a great day and tomorrow will be even better when Pres Trump signs the big beautiful bill!
Happy 4th Mark
Sent from my iPhone
Two things to remember are (a) only a third of Americans supported the Revolution — a third opposed it and the remainder simply wished to be left alone. There were a lot of things done, like theft of property, that we should not be proud of. And (b) Massachusetts almost started a second revolution a decade later. Shay’s Rebellion was in the winter of 1786-87, they shut down the courts and almost seized the Federal Arsenal in Springfield — these were veterans of the Revolution who were all set for another one and really didn’t like Governor Bowdoin (whose defeat in the April 1787 election helped calm things down). But Mark, these were “blacksmiths, butchers, carpenters, cobblers, & farmers” — Daniel Shays ran a tavern in the part of Pelham that is now under the Quabbin. By 1787, people were starting to see where things were going in France. Read Locke’s “Reflections on the Revolution in France” — Locke predicted that it would all end in a bloodbath and the rise of Napoleon, and he wasn’t the only one. This led to the Constitution being written that summer and it was ratified in 1789, with Madison proposing twelve amendments. Ten were ratified by the states in 1791 and became the “Bill of Rights, one became the 27th Amendment, and the other wasn’t ratified — we’d have over 1,700 Congressmen today if it had been. Oh, and in a July 3, 1776 letter to his wife Abigail, John Adams wrote that July SECOND would be viewed ad the birthday of a great new country, that the declaration had been approved that day — for political reasons, they had to wait two days for someone to get there so he could sign it at the same time.