8 SEPTEMBER 11-17, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Call Elaine Lustig, PhD .......................................................... at 303-369-7770 Needing Your Emotional ....... Animal W/ You? For eligible people who need their emotional support animal to accompany them at/or away from home, I am available to provide the documentation and counseling. CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED If you, a loved one, or your patient is struggling with a substance use disorder, help is just a call away. Take the first step toward recovery. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Call: 303-962-8027 SCAN TO LEARN MORE Denver Health’s Substance Treatment Line is here for you. • Free compassionate support • Confidential • No Pressure • Inclusive Care sift through, and that “people are having a hard time fi nding the centralized informa- tion of how to get here.” Still, she insisted she was still “pleased” with the Labor Day turnout, adding that “for a hot holiday, I would say it’s not too bad.” Protesters at Denver’s Workers Over Bil- lionaires event showed energy, even if their numbers weren’t as large as in other cities. There was also an activist fair, a common feature of recent national days of protest, with informational tents and an ice cream vendor set up across the street from the Capitol, at Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park. Two marches, including one to the Gover- nor’s Mansion (tip: Governor Jared Polis doesn’t live there) to demand state leaders oppose more federal actions, sprouted from the protest, as well. Denver resident Dee Davis attended the Workers Over Billionaires action with friends and noticed the lower turnout, but she said she thought that people were just busy celebrating the holiday with their families. “I was kind of hoping for more people. I’m hopeful it’s just because it’s the holi- days, and they’re doing family things,” she said. “There’s not many here compared to No Kings and at the Bernie one. That one was huge.” According to Davis, putting workers over billionaires and stopping ICE are the two most important issues for her, and those issues “are still as important as ever.” But Jennifer Bradley, who helped start the 50501 Colorado chapter earlier this year to help organize large protests, believes peo- ple are feeling worn out; these protests are more of a collective marathon than individual sprints, she noted. Bradley started getting tired in July, and took the month off from protesting so that she could continue fi ght- ing for what she believes in down the road. According to Bradley, activism exhaus- tion is just what Trump administration wants. “The issues are constant, and the agenda of fascism is to wear you down,” Bradley said. “Everybody gets burnout, and it’s really important to take breaks. Sometimes people need to rest. Consistent work is hard work.” Back for the Labor Day protest, Bradley recommended that people take time off if they’re feeling exhausted. Once they’re ready to return, they should keep coming out and not be discouraged by the lower turnouts. She and Coronado are confi dent that protest attendance in the winter months will go up, not down. “We’re coming up on election season, and that will energize people,” Coronado noted. “The point of the regime is to wear us down, and we have to fi ght against that.” National protest organizers hope to see a return to form for another No Kings action across the country on October 18. Denver saw around 5,000 people come out for the fi rst No Kings demonstration in June, but reaching that number again could require a big swing in momentum after Labor Day’s relatively low turnout. Email the author at [email protected]. News continued from page 6
