Protest Now
"To carry forward the work of creation in a disintegrating society,
some alternative channel must be found."
—Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History. 1972 Abridged Edition (228).
I’m Frederick Glaysher, an American, first and foremost, and an epic poet, rhapsode, and poet-critic.
These are the facts about my life that drive me forward here today. My German Stock forebears settled on the Pennsylvania frontier in the early 1750s, soon temporarily displaced by the French and Indian War, with a few scalped and massacred in 1781. Four sons of Johan Melchoir Stock served in the Revolutionary War, one a fifer.
Two Mickleys, of Huguenot Michelet lineage from Metz, Lorraine, France, served throughout the Revolutionary War, one a fifer, both among the troops that entered Union Square, NYC, with George Washington. Lieutenant John Jacob Mickley helped save the Liberty Bell from being melted down by the British in September 1777.
George Stuck fought in the War of 1812 at Chippewa and the Battle of Fort Erie, helping to drive the troops of the British king once again out of America.
Benjamin McCalla fought for the Union during the Civil War. Glayshers from Hampshire and Surrey, England, fought and died in WWI. Benjamin Franklin Stuck lost a leg fighting in Italy at the battle of the Gothic Line in WWII.
With all humility, many, many millions of Americans have ancestors like mine, many more prominent and illustrious. The phenomenal PBS programs of Ken Burns and Henry Louis Gates powerfully remind us who we Americans are. Our ancestors did not suffer and die in vain, for our Democracy to end in oligarchy and
tyranny. We owe it to them, ourselves, our children, and the future of this great country to protect Democracy and civil order.
America, a great choice lies before you. You have elected an unfit, unworthy occupant to the White House. Many have said he suffers from narcissistic personality disorder, and, on every issue, has demonstrated no empathy for the health of the Nation, cares nothing for the poor and the needy, debased education and the arts, has shamelessly, egregiously violated the Emolument Act to enrich himself and his family. The list of his amoral, immoral transgressions is long and has been extensively detailed by others. I’ll leave it at that.
Let the appalling murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the response by the would-be king and his sycophants, be the last intolerable straws. Get off the couch, into the public square, and proclaim that Liberty and Freedom in America still stand; that We the American People reject the demagogue who has duped much of the country into supporting him, and, inspired by the approaching July 4th 250th Anniversary of the Founding of our Nation,
We Call for him to Resign Now,
or, We the American People through our Representatives will Impeach him Now,
or, We the American People will invoke the 25th Amendment Now,
to remove him, Constitutionally, Legally, and Peacefully from the
Office of the Presidency of the United States of America.
As a life-long independent in every way for over 70 years, I believe both Democrat and Republican, Left and Right, bear responsibility for dividing the Nation into two opposing camps. In my opinion, both have long become extreme and Utopian in some of their positions. Both must reclaim the integrity of our common humanity and moderate, sensible, pragmatic national purpose. Both must come together and take the major step needed toward healing national unity—Constitutionally remove from office the demagogue who has exploited our differences for his own benefit.
We must walk the path of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, and the former Czech President Vaclav Havel’s peaceful protests and Velvet Revolution. In Havel’s words to the Council of Europe (1990), “We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the seemingly impossible to become a reality.” They all eschewed violence and served the best interests of their nations and the world.
Instead of division and animosity, Thomas Jefferson’s words still ring true across the centuries. “It does me no harm for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god.” Freedom of conscience, including religious conscience, is the hallmark of civilization.
To the 20% or more evangelicals who voted for the con man in the White House, I say, respecting your right to your own conscience, have you not learned your lesson? How many millions of those who unwisely voted for him, now suffer the worsening consequences? Where is the Christianity in his damaging and destroying the lives of tens of millions of people, stripping the Nation of more then 4 trillion dollars, and all his other sins? Christianity should not be confused with insurrection, subversion, treason, and sedition. Listen to the voices of wiser Christians, and others, and step back from the precipice that gapes before us all.
Given the servile incompetents he has installed all around him, there is insufficient protection for our cities from being reduced to the rubble of Chechnya, Syria, and Ukraine, all of those devastated cities of WWI and WWII, and elsewhere. America must have military leaders of the highest ability, experience, and integrity to protect and guard her. The boundlessly greedy, self-serving 34x felon and madman in the White House is destroying the citadel of our safety, stocking it with pawns and idiots.
My two books of poems Into the Ruins and The Bower of Nil are about what happens to civilization when it falls into barbarism. I recall and take the reader deep into the heart of the horrors that have taken place throughout modernity and extol the collective human effort to create law and order, including at the international level with the League of Nations, United Nations, and NATO. In the words of the UN Charter, “To save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”
READ POEMS: Into the Ruins of Modernity (poems only) Frederick Glaysher, UN Plaza, International Day of Peace, San Francisco, September 21, 2025. 26:49 minutes. https://youtu.be/gt1K6EmTX5Q
We Americans, we human beings, have the capacity to cooperate and work together when we choose to do so. Let us remember the ancient words, “Choose life, that you and your generations may live.” The American Constitution is the codification of thousands of years of human experience from around the world. Let us not allow anyone to put that experience aside, but together seek a deeper understanding of its meaning for our time. Let us trust in the goodness of America and human nature, and launch forward on a great national mission to recover commonsense and moderation in the United States of America.
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This talk and updates will be posted to https://fglaysher.com/protestnow.html
Frederick Glaysher
Rochester, Michigan USA
FGlaysher.Com
EarthrisePress.Net
ApollosTroupe.Net
Protested at
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ferndale, Michigan
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