Share the road in peace

It’s Flag Day, 2025. I will march from the Flathead County Courthouse to Depot Park in Kalispell, along with hundreds of other citizens who are appalled at the relentless attacks upon democracy and our Constitution by the most vain, vulgar and vindictive president in American history and his tyrannical minions.

I will carry the American flag, which slowly but surely is being reclaimed from those who would fly it to show their patriotism to Donald Trump. The flag does not belong to a president. It does not belong to any political party. It belongs to we, the people, of the United States of America. 

I expect to be among the oldest of the marchers at this event in the Flathead and others across the nation that are being organized and lead by young people. Their engagement and passion is a sign of hope. 

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, and potentially other cities around the country, U.S. Marines and the National Guard are being ordered to present themselves as a fearsome barrier to free speech and peaceful protest. The Marine Corps Hymn is a lofty, patriot song. With no disrespect to the honor and sacrifice - past, present and future - of the Corps and its veterans, President Trump is desecrating the history of the service and its patriotic hymn, which includes the moving verse “First to fight for right and freedom, And to keep our honor clean.” 

(As sung to “The Marines’ Hymn”): 

From the office of the president 

To the streets of East LA.

We will silence any protesting 

There is nothing you can say. 

Disregard the Constitution 

And our sacred right to speak.

We have crossed the line to monarchy (with the) 

The United States Marines. 

(The Day After) 

On the streets of Kalispell, it was peaceful. Not to say it wasn’t noisy. As protesters walked the sidewalks on either side of Main Street, drivers offered either support with blaring horns or condemnation of the marchers’ sentiments with occasional f-bombs shouted from truck windows and plumes of black diesel smoke from revving engines. 

Other than the fumes of toxic diesel exhaust, it was benign nonsense from those waving Trump flags as they drove past. Until the very end. 

At the intersection of Main and Center Streets, a driver turning the corner at Depot Park became impatient with a small group of marchers trying to cross Main Street onto a packed sidewalk where the march was ending. From the opposite corner I watched as the light turned red for the pedestrians. 

A man standing near me was recording the scene while offering a narrative of disdain about the protest. I started talking to him and as he watched the screen on his phone he said one of the protesters crossing the street banged on the hood of the waiting car. When I turned to look I saw the driver lurch into the stalled group of pedestrians. 

The protesters scattered, all but one successfully getting out of the car’s path. As if it were a news report on television I waited to see if the driver would continue driving, crushing the woman who was knocked flat on her back. Fortunately the driver went no further and appeared stunned as others pushed against his car and ran up to the driver, yelling, “Roll down your window. Stop.” 

According to the man recording the event, this is what happens with protests. Instead of antagonizing “the other side” we should be talking to each other. He wouldn’t justify the driver’s actions but implied that blocking traffic and banging on the hood of the driver’s car was the provocation for the violence. 

I hope the woman is well. I looked for reports of the incident and an update on the well-being of the person who was hit Saturday evening. There was nothing on the local news. 

There was a photo in Sunday’s paper and the Flathead Beacon said the woman was hit by a slow-moving vehicle. I can attest the driver lurched into the pedestrians, it was not a slow roll. Whether the lurch was a deliberate or an accidental assault will be for investigators to sort out. 

Perhaps it is in our DNA. We are inhabitants of a planet living among creatures who are either killed or are the killers that survive. But as humans at the top of the food chain we have a talent other species lack: before we kill or do harm to others we talk about our differences. 

We can agree on standards of conduct that do not include personal assault, either verbally or physically. We can respect the fact that each of us who has been given the gift to walk on two legs in this world has a right to walk our own paths, as long as we do no harm to others. 

We don’t have to agree with our fellow pedestrians that travel our planet. 

But as long as we greet them with kindness, patience and maybe even food for the body or the mind, we can share the road in peace.

Roger Hopkins

Columbia Falls