We Showed Up.
This piece originally appeared in The Oak Ridger and on the Project Battleground Substack.
If you drove down the Turnpike on Saturday, you saw it. Nearly 1,000 people lined the road in Oak Ridge - holding handmade signs, waving American flags, standing shoulder to shoulder in one of the city’s largest public gatherings in recent memory. It wasn’t a festival or a campaign stop. It was neighbors showing up to make their voices heard, and by the end of the day, it had become something even deeper.
We saw families with young children, retirees, veterans, union members, students, and pastors, all gathered for the same reason: to say that what’s happening in this country isn’t normal, and it isn’t right. We showed up because we believe in standing together. We left knowing we’d stood up for something bigger than any of us expected.
The rally wasn’t organized as a First Amendment protest. But that’s what it became. Because when you’re met with mockery, intimidation, and attempts to discredit your voice simply for using it, you realize you’re not just showing up to speak. You’re showing up to protect the right to speak at all.
Across the street, a much smaller crowd assembled. Their event was thrown together at the last minute and drew barely two handfuls of people. They stood behind cameras, yelling, hoping to provoke, but what they got was something they often mock us for: a safe space. That’s the irony. They wouldn’t offer us one, but they needed one for themselves. And they got it - freely, peacefully, without conflict. That’s how the First Amendment works. It protects everyone, even those who would use it to mock others for exercising it.
A local leader even tried to write the rally off as “troublemaking.” But that’s not what anyone saw. What they saw were grandparents holding signs. Teens speaking up. Neighbors showing up for one another. People who’ve never been to a rally before, but knew they needed to be there. That’s not trouble. That’s democracy.
Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank used her public office not to serve her constituents—but to try and intimidate them for exercising their First Amendment rights. Instead of listening, she showed up to silence.
After the mayor made her statement, we released their own—making it clear that intimidation has no place in public service, and that the voices of everyday people will not be silenced.
We’re not waiting on Washington to fix things. We’re not waiting on Nashville to give us permission. We’re building something here - neighbor by neighbor, street by street. That’s how change happens. Not all at once, but because people care enough to come out on a hot summer day and say: “This matters.”
To everyone who showed up - thank you. To everyone who drove by and wondered if it meant something - it did. And to anyone who’s still unsure about what’s happening in this country, just know: you are not alone.
We’re here too. We showed up.
