On February 18 there were rallies around the Valley calling on Congress to stop Trump's planned border wall and his “state of emergency.” Borders serve mostly to keep the world's poorest people out of rich nations.

The average white person is richer than the average black person in the USA and around the world because thousands of years ago, white people got lucky – not because, as racists say, white people are smarter or work harder.

Some 13,000 years ago, through luck, white people ended up in the area now known as Iraq, which at the time had better farmland than the area where black people lived. This allowed white people to store surplus food, and allowed some members of their society to spend time doing things like inventing steel. This and other innovations are why white Europeans later took black Africans as slaves, rather than the other way around. This story is told in the book “Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Jared Diamond.

Today, the USA uses its military to steal oil and other resources from Africa, and to keep dictators in power. With 4 percent of the world's population, the USA spends as much on the military as the rest of the world combined. Activists who are working to cut the USA's military budget have a web site at www.PeaceAction.org.

The February 18 rally in Northampton was organized by two groups. They have web sites at www.PioneerValleyWomensMarch.org and www.IndivisibleNoho.com. They created a Facebook event page for the rally. The page says, “The national emergency our country is facing is not border crossings, but a dangerous assault on our democracy. Trump's declaration of a national emergency is an undemocratic power grab to get his racist border wall. The time is NOW to stand united in defense of democracy, in solidarity with immigrant, Muslim, black, and brown communities and in opposition to this dangerous abuse of power.”

In Springfield, the February 18 rally was organized by a group that has a web site at www.FamiliesBelongTogether.org. According to that site, the group works to “fight family separation and promote dignity, unity, and compassion for all children and families.”

On February 18 people at the Brattleboro rally held signs, one of which read, “Don't take democracy for granted.”

The Greenfield rally was organized by a group that has a web site at www.fccpr.us. The event announcement said, “Trump is setting up a dangerous precedent to justify almost limitless future abuses of presidential power. We will not let him get away with this.”

A group that works to abolish all borders has a web site at www.globaljustice.org.uk.