June 23, 2025
Greetings Indivisibles!
It was a good and grand thing we made on Saturday June 14, 2025. We made a statement—we’re not giving up our flag, we’re not cleaving our community, we’re not abandoning our democracy. We are a loud and proud many. And we are growing into an unbreakable wall of linked hearts and arms.
First, some important announcements and then a Rally Recap.
Indivisible Helena Membership Meeting:
Thursday, June 26, 6:15-7:45pm
Lewis & Clark Library, Large Meeting Room
- Discussion of the No Kings Rally: we want to hear your thoughts and ideas.
- Discussion of next action regarding the “Big Bad Bogus Budget Bill.”
- Facilitated exercise with Members to bring clarity about moving forward together.
Other Announcements
The Communications Committee needs social media help:
We need volunteers fluent in Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky (and TikTok, You Tube—you would have to produce the video content ‘cause we don’t have a clue) to post to Indivisible Helena’s accounts. Content to post can be from the social media platforms as well as link back to content on our website. Contact us at indivisiblehelena@gmail.com if you want to help Indivisible Helena reach new and diverse constituencies.
Our apologies…
…to our valued partner, Waking Giant, for identifying them as Sleeping Giant (they definitely are not sleeping!) in our June 8th Newsletter. We promise that old dogs will learn new tricks!
Got a story?
Do you have a story about how the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to programs like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Veterans benefits, etc. have impacted you or will impact you? Have you been impacted by federal funding cuts or federal layoffs?
Middle Fork Strategies, a progressive advocacy group based in Helena, is collecting stories from Montanans via a Google Form (it has good background information). Or contact Cara Keleher at Middle Fork Strategies, ckeleher@middleforkmt.org
RALLY RECAP
No Kings Day, 2025: A Day of Community, Truth-Telling and Calls to Action
Photograph by Todd Harwell
Saturday was a perfect blue-sky day as Helena No Kings Rally-goers celebrated Flag Day at the State Capitol’s Flag Plaza, protested the Trump and MAGA agenda, and importantly, received calls to action (please see below!) from expert speakers.
Community: More than 100 Helena Indivisible volunteers organized the rally, and many generously worked on more than one occasion over the past several weeks. As ralliers gathered, the upbeat band Big Ska Country led by Scott Williams, energized the crowd which was estimated by Capitol Security to be at least 3,000. The Pledge of Allegiance to OUR FLAG was led by honorable veterans, Jerry Wells, Bob Russell and Dave Hanley.
Rally co-hosts, the American Civil Liberties Union – MT, Big Sky 55+, Hands On Global, Montana Federation of Public Employees, Catalyst, Montana Environmental Information Center and Friends of the Third Branch and partner organizations including Waking Giant, HAART, Giffords Gun Owners for Safety, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense, the Sewing Circle, and Project Paperclip provided education, information and opportunities to volunteer on the west lawn throughout the rally.
Nancy Keenan, former teacher and former two-term Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction, former state legislator and previous Executive Director of the National Abortion Rights Action League served as moderator, firing up the crowd and introducing musicians and speakers. She also reminded ralliers to remember the tenets of civil disobedience and non-violence. After the speeches, Keenan urged ralliers to visit the tables of activist partner organizations and to sign up to volunteer, while the Jazz All Stars – Wilbur Rehmann, MJ Williams and Shaun Deola – wound up the rally with some cool jazz music!
Truth-telling: The rally had an impressive line-up of truly expert speakers.
- Marc Racicot, former Montana attorney general, two-term Montana governor and former chair of the Republic National Committee;
- Pat Cotter, retired two-term justice of the Montana Supreme Court;
- Charlie Snellman, a college-bound 2025 graduate of Capital High School;
- Anne Hedges, executive director of the Montana Environmental Information Center; and
- Rachel Carroll Rivas, interim director of the Intelligence Project for the Southern Poverty Law Center and expert on supremacist hate and anti-government movements.
Racicot and Cotter did not mince words as they described the systematic undoing of our democracy by Donald Trump and his billionaire cronies and political sycophants. According to Racicot, “It is as predictable as night following day that Donald Trump will ignore and transgress the ethical and legal boundaries of the law and Constitution at his whim and caprice. There is virtually no ethical obligation or moral code that guides or confines his actions, his words, his lies nor his brutish behavior.” He also pointed out that Trump isn’t acting alone, but is, “aided and abetted by the titans of business and the Republicans in Congress who, with full knowledge of the depth and breadth of the rot in the Trump Administration, remain wholly unable to find the courage to do the right thing for the right reasons. With their silence and their vote they may avoid the wrath and rage of Donald Trump, but they also…risk the undoing of the Constitution, our union and our democracy itself.” Cotter reminded us that 200 years ago, John Adams simply, but profoundly stated, “We are a government of laws and not men.” She also reminded us that when asked if he agreed with John Adams, Donald Trump said, “I wouldn’t agree 100%.” Cotter instructed the crowd, “Make no mistake: Donald Trump is taking a page straight out of the authoritarian handbook. He has already assumed all executive and legislative functions, and he is likely to defy any court order that slows him down.”
Hedges highlighted a number of provisions in what she termed the “Big Bad Bogus Budget Bill,” that would harm Montanans, our communities, hospitals and schools including cuts to education, Medicaid, Medicare and food assistance programs. All of this is on the chopping block, while the bill triples the budget for ICE and provides juicy tax cuts for the richest people in our country.
“Let me be clear: education should teach the truth, not propaganda. Academic Freedom is not negotiable.” These wise words came from Snellman, who graduated from Capital High School this month. He urged us not to forget our history lessons, “…after becoming German Chancellor in 1933, Hitler and his ministry of education sought to control education and the arts in every way,” Snellman said. “Nazi ideology was infused into every aspect of social and private life in Germany. So I ask you, what’s different about the efforts of our President?”
Rivas shared her experience tracking hard right hate and anti-government extremist groups across the country. She explained that these groups “…manipulate our political system with violence and propaganda,” and that the “effort afoot is to replace our democracy, however imperfect, with authoritarian minority rule – consolidated power facilitated by highly financed organizations. The target of their ire is clear: women, immigrants, Jewish people, LGBTQ+ people, Muslims, Black folks, low-income and Indigenous people.” Rivas let ralliers know in no uncertain terms that, “…the reality we are in is that they have had success. They took control. And, now the line between the government and those so-called extremists of those 1,361 hate and anti-government groups has disappeared.” She went on, however, to describe the ways in which, “the cracks are showing,” and stating that the authoritarian playbook is powerful but it is not invincible.”
Calls to Action: Speakers challenged the crowd to take action now by showing up and speaking up:
- Bird-dog Senator Daines, Senator Sheehy and Representative Downing: call, email, request meetings— do something every day to let them know how you feel. While this may not change their minds, it lets them know we are not going away, looking away or giving up. Every email or call is a drop in the bucket of resistance that should be overflowing at all times. Daily calls and emails. Full Stop.
- Keeping the pressure on our congressional delegation is especially important right now as we work to defeat the Big Bad Bogus Budget Bill (aka the Reconciliation Bill).
- Attend rallies, protests, town hall meetings and be civil, be LOUD!
- Post on social media and write letters to the editor.
- Volunteer. Get involved with one or more activist groups.
- Run for office.
- Support candidates whose values you share, at all levels—local, state and federal.
- Listen to and talk with friends, family, neighbors—especially those who may disagree. These small acts matter.
- Fight disinformation – make others aware of what is really happening.
Rally speeches will be available on theIndivisible Helena website this week. If you have video clips of any of the speeches, forward them to indivisiblehelena@gmail.com to be included with the appropriate speech.
GOOD READ
Well, of course Trump took us into another war as the newsletter was being edited, so here is a preliminary analysis by one of the left’s most critical, experienced journalists, Marc Cooper. Follow his The Coop Scoop, and support (with $$) the Journal of the Plague Years, for which Cooper contributes now more or less regularly.
And from acclaimed historian Timothy Snyder a succinct list to keep in mind as we face this fresh hell:
Until next week,
Solidarity 
Indivisible Helena