Protests in nearly 2,000 locations are scheduled around the USA on Saturday to rally against the president’s authoritarian approach to his elected office calling this “No Kings Day” — a nation-wide protest against the unconstitutional actions from the White House. A president who for his 79th birthday is staging a massive military parade that day as we have never seen before — well maybe on Russian media. It is also Flag day, which he seems to think is his emblem alone. Mayors and governors who support this heist of flag day and our tax dollars are amassing National Guard and state police as I write to be on notice, ready to punish this action of our right to freedom of speech. So let me tell you about the OTHER rabble-rousers.

Saturday, June 14 is also International Knit in Public Day. Knitters who will sit on benches and stools, in cafes and parks and twist fiber into interlocking designs while talking amongst friends and strangers. So far I have not heard of any closures to prevent knitters from gathering, seen any signs denying knitters space, or extra police force called in to monitor the needles (they are sharp after all).

But it is only Thursday.

These events are not entirely different. Just different approaches.

I was small in the 60″s but remember the deadly way protest and challenges were met with violence: the Kent State carnage on the small black-and-white tvs, the local memorials for JFK, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. I sat in pews, my white tights itching and my mother crying beside me, voices calling for peace from the podiums: early imprint on me about the range of rage from both sides, the immobility of extremes.

I have sat with knitters for decades, in good times and bad, discussing and airing issues while we concentrate on listening to strangers and share our voices. I have learned many, many things around those tables.

There are so many ways to express, educate and protest. Not one. This Saturday there are two different options for me. One with signs, walking and to date, peaceful gathering. The other sharing outdoor space and doing the exact same thing: being together, sharing information, bolstering each other.

Which to do?

I picked some yarn up from a local yarn store in Seattle yesterday before my flight. We talked about Saturday and what everyone intended to do who worked at the store. For one woman there was no conflict at all.

“I am taking my knitting and sign downtown, finding a park bench to sit and knit in public and support each other.”

So before you disparage either of us, or your neighbor printing a sign that says “KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OUR PUBLIC LANDS” or your other neighbor who has the largest big-ass American Flag hanging with a Trump sign on his house, remember what has always made our country unique. Individualism, the Constitution, the right to Vote, the right to Freedom of Speech.

Just so you know I’m with her. See you on the bench.