field-notes
No Kings Day
A Veteran's Protest in Anaconda, Montana
I was walking around Anaconda with my camera, doing what I usually do—photographing houses, beat-up infrastructure, whatever catches my eye. It's quiet work. Nobody really pays attention to a guy with a camera wandering around.
When I passed Kennedy Commons Park, I saw the veteran's memorial and noticed someone sitting in the shade nearby. At first I kept walking. But something made me turn around and go back.
I put my camera away as I crossed the street—felt like the right thing to do. The man greeted me with a smile. Mike Blume, Vietnam vet, born and raised in Anaconda. He'd zip-tied some handmade cardboard signs to the memorial that read "NO KINGS."
It was No Kings Day—a national protest against corruption in Congress and the presidency. Mike was angry about government corruption, but he wasn't ranting. Just sitting there with his signs, honoring the names on that wall.
We talked for maybe ten minutes. About his service in Vietnam. About the names on the memorial—friends of his, his father's name, and his own name right underneath his father's.
Then I asked if I could make his portrait. I'm always nervous asking that question—feels intrusive somehow. But this felt important to document. Mike joked that I'd probably break my camera taking a picture of his face.
He stood in front of the memorial wall, next to those names. The guy was completely at ease.
I made a few frames and that was it. I thanked him and kept walking. But that encounter stuck with me. Something about Mike's quiet determination, the way he could be both angry and kind at the same time. The way he'd claimed that space for his protest but also for his remembrance.
I don't know if his signs changed any minds that day. But there was something moving about it—this one guy in a small Montana town, sitting by himself at a memorial, standing up for justice and integrity. No crowd, no fanfare. Just Mike Blume and his handmade signs, doing what he thought was right.
