WILMINGTON — Thousands of troops have been deployed to the Middle East as the war with Iran escalates. Ray and Bethany Barnett’s son-in-law is one of them — and part of the impetus for their attendance to the No Kings protest over the weekend.
“He’s on an airplane right now,” Bethany Barnett said. “No, I don’t believe that our American citizens should be in this war that he [Trump] started.”
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The Barnetts were among thousands of people who treked downtown Wilmington on Saturday, March 28, to speak against President Donald Trump’s policies on ICE and the war. The local event was third No Kings rally to take place in the last nine months nationwide; 3,300 were planned across the country over the weekend. Many cities claim to have drawn the most people to date, estimated by the No Kings coalition to have brought 8 million together across the U.S.
Local organizers — including Women Organizing for Wilmington, varied Indivisible chapters, and a dozen more organizations — claim around 8,500 people were lined up along Third Street and in front of Thalian Hall; Wilmington Police Department could not confirm attendance numbers. Thirteen speakers took to the podium at Innes Park as cars drove by honking in support or dissent, as protesters chanted “Impeach Trump.”
“We are in a war and our American troops don’t know what they’re fighting for,” speaker Robert Bellamy of Speak Ya Peace said about the Iran war, launched by the United States — without congressional approval — and Israel on Feb. 28.
Trump has stated its importance as eliminating “immediate threat” from Iran’s military nuclear program, degrading its missile capacity; the New York Times also reported the attack came from pressure from Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Initial strikes killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with Trump encouraging Iranians to take back their country. In recent weeks, Trump also has said it was necessary to stop Iran from attacking the U.S. military and to secure the Strait of Hormuz, now closed, which has roughly 20% of the world’s crude oil passing through it daily.
It was the Barnetts second time attending No Kings in recent months; this event happened to take place the same day their son-in-law, in the Navy, was deployed from Virginia to Croatia due to the war.
“He just left behind his wife and a 2-year-old baby,” Ray Barnett explained.
Barnett listed off incidents of recent military attacks he disagreed with, from boat strikes in the Caribbean aimed at thwarting reported drug smuggling, to the kidnapping of the president and first lady of Venezuela at the start of the new year.
“And now it’s Iran. It seems like he wants to be a dictator, have war with whoever he wants to and prosecute pretty much anyone that disagrees with him,” Ray Barnett said of Trump.
So far, 13 U.S. service members have died in the war, though Iran’s U.N. ambassador stated there have been over 1,500 civilian casualties and 3.2 million displaced people. Included in the civilian casualties are reportedly about 175 people killed in a U.S. strike on an elementary school.
Bethany Barnett said she was praying for her son-in-law, just as she did for the other troops deployed overseas.
Others in attendance, like Wilmington residents Olivia Shaw and Patricia Comeaux, were there to speak up against ICE, the treatment of minority groups, and decisions made with impunity, including the war.
“He’s doing this with no regard for anyone but his own self,” Comeaux said, “and the billionaires.”
Shaw agreed and added the administration’s actions are having a real impact on day-to-day life, especially as viewed through her friends’ eyes.
“Our Latino friends are scared to death that they’re going to be arrested and put in prison without due process,” Shaw said.
Speakers offered calls for investing in people, resisting oppression and authoritarianism, lowering costs for the community and spurring a call to action.
Council woman Salette Andrews told the audience democracy needed to be an “everyday practice,” with citizens taking on a responsibility to remain engaged and informed.
“Because a healthy democracy is not measured by how well it serves the powerful. It is measured by how well it serves everyone,” she said.
She was followed by state house representative Deb Butler, who spoke about the recent primary election, where state senator and Senate President Phil Berger lost to Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page after two recounts. Berger has led the state’s Republican majority since 2011 and was considered one of North Carolina’s most powerful politicians. Berger often led the charge to override vetoes from the governor.
“What just happened to the Berger King?” Butler asked the protestors. “Power has a way of making people forget who they serve because if you ignore public schools long enough, if you override vetoes without listening, when you push policies that people didn’t ask for and don’t want, they start to notice. And eventually they act. Because in North Carolina, power is not permanent.”
Butler reiterated a 2019 sentiment she became popular for — “I will not yield” — when a veto override was up for discussion in the North Carolina House of Representatives regarding the state budget. Saturday she redirected the same messaging for the Trump administration and elected officials in agreement with the administration’s actions.
“When they try to divide us, do not yield,” Butler said. “When they try to overwhelm us with chaos, do not yield to that. When they act like they are entitled to rule instead of serve, do not yield to that.”
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