Signs of Fascism, Silent Protest
December 21, 2025
Rockland, Maine
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The following is a video record of the testimony of of Abi Morrison, Annegien Zuidema, and Peter Yanz to the Rockland City Council in Maine on March 10, 2025. Video credit: Marjorie Strauss. Transcript follows.
You have a choice: a choice between words and actions.
The resolution affirming community trust and clarifying law enforcement responsibilities claims that Rockland police will not participate in targeting people based on immigration status. But this council has already taken federal money, the Operation Stonegarden Grant funds, and those will compel our law enforcement officers to do exactly that.
On January 29, 2025 the president signed S. 5 into law. Under this law, anyone merely suspected of being undocumented can be detained, and also if they are also just suspected of having committed a crime. There is no conviction necessary; there is no judicial review. Anyone who isn’t white is at risk. Once detained, they disappear into a system with no transparency and no oversight. Families don’t know where their loved ones are. They don’t know if they will ever see them again.
And now, for the first time in history, our government is using Guantanamo Bay to detail immigrants who were apprehended here, on U.S. soil. This is completely unprecedented, it is completely illegal, and it is happening now. The administration refuses to provide notices of transfer. Detainees are living in daily fear of being moved without warning, without reason, and without recourse. They are cut off from their family, cut off from their attorneys, literally cut off from hope.
And this is what we do know about conditions at Guantanamo Bay thanks to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit: detainees are confined in solitary, windowless cells for at least 23 hours each day. Detainees are allowed extremely limited time outside their cells. They are constantly shackled and invasively strip-searched. They are never permitted to contact family members.
Guards engage in verbal and physical abuse including restraining people to a punishment chair for hours, withholding water as retaliation, threatening to shoot detainees, fracturing an individual’s hand by slamming a radio into it. People are losing 10-20 pounds over the span of several weeks. They can’t sleep because of what they’ve endured there. These degrading conditions and extreme isolation have led to several suicide attempts as well.
People are getting picked up who have a green card, who are here legally. This isn’t some far-away injustice. This is here and now. The rate at which Customs and Border Patrol are picking up people doubled just in January.
The council can’t have it both ways. It can’t claim to stand for justice with a resolution while taking money from a system that is based on cruelty. If we are going to truly stand by this resolution, then we have to act. We have to return the Operation Stonegarden grant before the new fiscal year. If we don’t, this blood is on your hands.

On March 1, 2025, 131 residents of the towns of midcoast Maine peaceably assembled at the Knox County Courthouse to petition our government for redress of grievances, the protected right of all people living in the United States under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The following list represents the full 75 grievances identified by members of The Audacity as of March 1, each representing an act of the Trump administration during the first 40 days of its second term. We sadly expect many more to follow. We’re sending our list of grievances to each of our members of Congress now.
But that’s not all. We call on all Mainers of conscience to TAKE ACTION and SIGN OUR PETITION FOR A PUBLIC TOWN HALL in Knox County with our members of Congress, Representative Chellie Pingree, Senator Angus King, and Senator Susan Collins. When we reach 1,000 signatures, we will deliver our petition to each of our representatives for a prompt response.

Source: https://www.penbaypilot.com/article/midcoast-activist-group-audacity-meet-sign-march-rockland/255349
Members of the local artistic social movement known as The Audacity are holding a mass meeting, a public-square sing-out of protest songs, and a march to the Knox County Courthouse Saturday, March 1, as part of the statewide 16 Counties for Courage day of action.
“Members of the public who support democracy and who oppose the turn toward authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption in America are invited to join,” the organizers said, in a news release.

Part 1 of the day on March 1 begins at 10 a.m. with a mass meeting at the First Universalist Church, 345 Broadway, in Rockland.
“During the Civil Rights Movement, meetings were held right before actions, and we’ll follow that lead,” the group said. “These in-person mass meetings are essential not only to move people into action, but also to get people connected to planning and to get new organizing ideas rolling.”
“Everything that The Audacity is doing happened because somebody said ‘someone ought to,’ and then somebody stepped forward to make it happen,” said James Cook of Rockport, facilitator of The Audacity. “If you’ve got an idea, bring it to the meeting.”
The meeting is not sponsored by the First Universalist Church; The Audacity has rented the space, organizers said.
Part 2 of the day continues at noon as The Audacity gathers in Chapman Park in Rockland to sing songs of protest, resistance, freedom, and a better world.
Public-square singing follows the Estonian Singing Revolution model, “and we will teach and learn new songs from one another this and every Saturday at noon,” the release said.
Part 3 of the day involves a transition at 12:30 p.m. with a nonviolent, non-obstructionist march to the Knox County Courthouse at 62 Union Street.
The Knox County Courthouse, two blocks from Chapman Park, is the local seat of government and therefore a fitting place for citizens to peaceably assemble and petition for redress of grievances, as is their First Amendment right, organizers said.
As the assembled march from Chapman Park to the Courthouse, they will sing Joshua Blaine’s song of inclusion:
No one is getting left behind this time
No one is getting left behind
No one is getting left behind this time
We get there together or never get there at all
When assembled at the steps of the courthouse, members of The Audacity will read aloud the offenses against the nation by the forces of authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption in the first month of the new administration, the release said. Video and a text transcription of this reading will be sent to Maine’s elected federal representatives.
The Audacity is a new local group that formed in January to plan and implement creative collective action to counter the erosion of democracy, equity, and inclusion in the U.S.
“The group works together across differences in philosophy, values, and methods within a broad commitment to nonviolent resistance,” the release said. “All members of the public who support democracy and who oppose the current turn toward bigotry, corruption, exclusion, and authoritarianism are welcome to join the group online at audacitycat.com or by emailing contact@audacitycat.com.”

Noel Jost-Coq wrote it, and she sings it!
The folks who are gathering in Rockland every Saturday at noon are full of creative energy, coming up with their own messages of dissent.
Lyrics:
We Don’t Want No Illegal Kings Around Here
We Don’t Want No Illegal Kings Around Here
The Patriots Fought the English King
And We Ain’t Going to Kiss that Ring
No, We Don’t Want No Illegal Kings Around Here
— written by Noel Jost-Coq for The Audacity, February 2025