Rejecting Kings Since 1776
Originally posted February 23rd 2025. Updated April 5th.
Sometimes, getting angry motivates you to get stuff done. Tonight my spouse Beth Rose and I designed a lawn sign, our small way to speak out against Trump’s monarchical words and actions, with a flag-centric message to remind everyone of our nation’s united stance for democracy. After all, what’s more American than “Rejecting Kings” since the July 4th Declaration of Independence?
We publicly shared the PDF link and Canva link for people to download and print their own, or modify as they wish. Both are shared under a CC0 Public Domain license to encourage wide distribution.
The asterisk with the historical footnote was Beth’s idea. Many state residents have heard the Legend of Connecticut’s Charter Oak of 1687. When England’s King James II sought to reassert control over the colony, he appointed a new governor to confiscate the previous charter that had granted self-governance. Allegedly, during a nighttime debate at Old State House in Hartford, opponents of the King’s rule blew out the candles and whisked away the charter document to hide it inside a large hollow oak tree, later known as the “Charter Oak.”
But Beth (and our neighbor Bill) also taught me that anti-monarchy sentiment goes back even earlier. Connecticut played a key role in hiding three judges involved in the 1649 Regicide, when 59 English Puritan judges put King Charles I on trial for tyranny against their nation, found him guilty, and signed the death warrant for his execution. After a turbulent decade, pro-monarchy forces restored his son to the throne as King Charles II, who sought vengeance against the Puritan “regicides,” or king killers. Eventually, three of them – Edward Whalley, William Goffe, and John Dixwell – fled to New Haven, Connecticut, where two of them temporarily lived in the West Rock area currently known as “Judges’ Cave”. Three major roads bear their names.
So in late February, we took our design to a local print shop and ordered 50 lawn signs. We posted two on our corner lot, snapped a cute pic with Oscar the dog peeking through the fence, and circulated our offer to neighbors and friends, asking $10 donation to cover our printing costs. Our front porch became a small cottage industry for people to pick up their signs, tagged with their names on blue masking tape. The neighborhood started to bloom with spring flowers and lawn signs. Our first batch sold out in one week.
Beth and I thought we were done, but our neighbors Amy and Lydia kindly fronted most of the cash for a second batch of 100 signs. During the month of March into early April, our “Rejecting Kings” design became even more popular. Historian Heather Cox Richardson liked our neighbor Adam’s photo of the sign on social media, which gained over a thousand likes. At the Medicaid Day of Action Rally at the Connecticut State Capitol, a patriot held the sign directly behind Governor Ned Lamont while he spoke at the podium. Rather than picking up one or two signs, some people placed orders for five or ten signs to share with their neighbors. Oscar took the opportunity to make many new friends on our porch.
And yes, because this is America, some people began using our public domain image to sell online merchandise – shirts, stickers, banners – with computer-generated models. But that’s perfectly fine. Beth and I intentionally shared our design to speak out, in our own small way, to better our nation.
Today, Beth and I brought our last fifteen signs to the Hands Off Day of Action against Trump at the CT State Capitol. Despite the rain, this protest event had a very strong turnout. We took pride in seeing several people bring the signs we designed to the event, and quickly sold out our remaining stock. Feels good that our “Rejecting Kings” message resonated with so many people. Let’s keep working together to make the change we need.
Several folks have already asked: Do you have more signs? Beth and I do not plan to order another batch unless friends wish to help front the $1k cost for 100 more at $10 each. Or anyone can download the design and print their own using the links at the top of this page.