The outpouring of love and joy in recent community gatherings has given me hope for our future. I’ve been especially inspired by the multitude of young people standing up for and celebrating our freedom to thrive as our true selves, love who we love, and care for all members of our community.

Carbondale’s Pride Parade, originally organized by a middle school club in 2019, has become one of Carbondale’s biggest and most vibrant parades – and the only one where local teens play a leading role. Glenwood Spring’s Pride celebration has grown into an all-day festival at Two Rivers Park, drawing youth from Parachute and Meeker to Gypsum.

Last February’s Grand Opening of the new Queer Resource Center in New Castle drew standing-room-only attendance. People of all ages and backgrounds buzzed with excitement and gratitude for this welcoming and supportive new space for local youth. 

Heartwarming community gatherings like these help keep us energized for the fight to protect our democracy. Having bullied their way into power, the MAGA regime is now implementing brutally repressive measures against our communities – attacking transgender youth; threatening to turn the US Marines on peaceful protestors; and sending masked, unaccountable ICE agents to snatch mothers, fathers, and children off the streets.

Fanning the flames of hatred toward transgender and immigrant members of our community is central to their strategy. If they can get us to turn on each other, it’ll distract us from their nefarious agenda of obliterating our freedoms while they seize the wealth we’ve created to care for each other and hand it over to their billionaire backers.

If they can get us to blame other members of our community for the problems we face in our daily lives – such as our inability to afford healthcare, find a good job, or retire in dignity – then we won’t blame the MAGA regime for all the ways they have crippled our healthcare system and economy.

If they can keep us divided, then we won’t realize the power that “We, the People” hold when we come together across ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds to care for each other and protect our democratic values.

Many of us felt that exhilarating sense of collective power at recent pro-democracy rallies in Glenwood: The April 5 Hands Off protest at Sayre Park likely set a record with 2,000 people attending, and the recent No Kings rally nearly doubled that number.

Like thousands of No Kings demonstrations across the nation, our local event felt like a celebration, not just a protest – a celebration of democracy, of our shared values of kindness and respect for all, and of the power we hold when we stand with and for each other.

Saturday’s event at Sayre Park included drumming, live music, dancing, hundreds of American flags, colorful sidewalk art, huge tissue paper butterflies, and kids running around with painted faces and animal-shaped balloons. The crowd cheered as a young Latina woman sang a moving song in Spanish to honor her immigrant family. One of the musicians led the crowd in an impromptu singing of the Star-Spangled Banner. Participants spoke of feeling more uplifted than they have in months. People stuck around long after the event ended.

For many participants, the best part was the spirited response from those driving down Grand Avenue as marchers filled both sides of the sidewalks for blocks on end. Countless Latino community members expressed their support and gratitude to the protestors through the windows of their vehicles, some with tears of joy in their eyes. 

The MAGA regime doesn’t want us to build connections with each other, celebrate our camaraderie, or realize that we are in the majority. They want us to feel depressed, isolated, and powerless. They want to keep us on defense, reacting to each new cruel attack on our neighbors, our freedoms, and our rights. The relentless, daily firehose of atrocities is intended to make us feel overwhelmed and keep us scrambling to respond to each new onslaught.

We can counter that sense of overwhelm by remembering – and calling out – the agenda that underlies all of their atrocities: taking away our freedoms, lining the pockets of their billionaire backers, and concentrating their power. 

We can counter the sense of isolation and sadness by joining pro-democracy rallies and events and recognizing how many of us share the same values.

Last weekend over 5 million Americans poured into the streets for the peaceful No Kings protests – connecting with old friends and making new ones, wearing creative costumes and carrying clever signs. Between the No Kings rallies and this month’s ongoing Pride celebrations, we are showing the world that Americans will continue to fight for the core principles our nation was founded upon – equality, justice, and freedom – and that the resistance movement is powerful, joyful, and growing.

Debbie Bruell of Carbondale is a former chair of the Garfield County Democrats and is a past member of the Roaring Fork Schools Board of Education.