Washington DC—Local grassroots groups have been rehearsing their measured response to Trump’s Stalinesque military ruck march slated for June 14. The military parade will tear up DC streets with Army tank squadrons, heavy military trucks, and Humvee vehicles, but the grassroots groups will be nowhere near it. Anyone traveling to Washington DC will get the first read on the people’s resistance messages along nearly every major highway bridge as they travel to watch the $54 million boondoggle.
The groups themselves will not be showing up to protest the military parade because they decided not to give Trump additional attention unlike the mainstream media. Attention is what he craves according to one of the organizers and spinning up any more energy for the military spectacle would only benefit him. So, they brainstormed ways to effectively undercut it with visibility brigades. The idea struck them as perfect for reaching 1000s several times a week to spread public consciousness of how chaotic and hurtful this regime is.
Some of the groups have already rehearsed the visibility brigades and driven under the bridges themselves so they know the messages will be visible from a distance with concise, impactful messages to the motorists passing by. DCMediaGroup joined them during one of their regular actions and many of the passing motorists honked frequently with approval.
According to organizers the message is to support the military Veterans but let them know many oppose Red Square sequels of tanks and armaments for a dictator in the U.S. capital. Another aim is to let those know who oppose it that there are many that believe it is inappropriate to celebrate a president’s birthday as if he were a king with a personal army. The organizers are not making a statement against the Army, they’re making a statement against this regime’s latest budget bill, which has yet to pass the Senate. If passed, the bill will hurt Veterans, Seniors on Medicare, families relying on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the disabled who cannot work.
It will be the first time a president has ever held a military spectacle to celebrate their own birthday in the nation’s capital.
Organizers Built A Grassroots Organization Letter by Letter, Bridge by Bridge
Micaela Pond, Founder of We of Action (WofA), said “We started out as five on one bridge and quickly grew to 18 in a short time.” She described that they were being strategic about their messaging. She also said the group “was not anti-military but pro-democracy.” WofA began by calling itself “Women of Action” but changed the name to better reflect their more general demographic.
Pond also said that when you’re getting so many honks of approval “it’s like an elixir for your soul.” She remarked that a sister group “Rise Up” has also taken up the bridge action and will also be present throughout Maryland bridges on June 14. “We are here to save democracy—we don’t want kings,” she said.
Pond described how they assembled large 3-foot black background foam boards and affixed giant white letters they cut out from white foam boards. Each board had to be purchased with members own money. They held several letter-making parties to get ready.
Another WofA member, Christopher Adair, who is a law student and in his early 20s, helps WofA with their communications. He wanted to get more youth interested in civic engagement after the 2024 election disaster. He turned his shock and disappointment in the presidential election into action. He said that their first meeting drew hundreds of young voters out, and although his interest is fighting poverty, the Visibility Brigade was something that drew so much interest he was energized by it. He speaks passionately about what he has done working with WofA.
Lara C, one of the operational volunteers for the Visibility Brigades, found out about the group WofA while at a Tesla Takedown boycott line. She is a first generation Latina with a strong sense of social and moral justice.
She read off the 17 different messages the bridge banners will display from a spreadsheet she helped create. One bridge banner will read “No Kings,” another will read “Defend Rights Not Rulers.” She confirms there will be a lengthy presence at the bridges and shifts of teams will staff them. There is much planning and coordinating logistics with the bridge captains which has taken months to plan and organize.
One of the keys to succeeding is the modular and interchangeable styled lettering and placement along the different bridges. Having many letters means messaging can be refocused and reused. Every detail was carefully considered to make it work. She takes pride in her part. There are many others involved also. There are many parts to play. Her roll is key and she is thorough.
Aside from all that and perhaps the most important underlying reason for her being at the bridges, is her worry that the ICE roundups could target her personally as well as her friends because of their ethnicity. So she joined the Visibility Brigades because it felt to her like it was an effective action and it also felt empowering. She believes it will be making an important statement against the many ongoing unconstitutional actions and outright lies coming from this regime.
She repeated a quote from Gavin Newsom as her motivation to be out on the bridges, “The most important office is the office of the citizen.” She adopts it and repeats it as her own because it reminds her of what’s at stake as more democratic guardrails disappear every day.
She also admitted to ordering several official copies of her birth certificate and laminating them to wear around her neck because she was so disturbed about the ICE roundups playing out across the country. She is an American citizen but deeply mistrusts those involved in the unlawful ICE roundups, detentions, and removals to other countries without due process.
She says she is “mourning her country” and she wants her “country to work for everyone.” “Right now it’s working only for the elites and billionaires and the President’s Cabinet who are not even experts in their fields,” she says. “Doge is a landfill of white mediocrity,” she adds.
Editor’s note: Changes were made to clarify the name of the action to reflect ‘Visibility Brigades.’
