Today is the 40th anniversary of the first nationwide observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The federal holiday honors the life and legacy of the slain civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
King championed peaceful protest, nonviolent resistance, and civil disobedience as ways to fight for racial equality and justice.
Since the start of 2026, the Estes Valley Voice has witnessed two protests along our main thoroughfare. The people who have turned out, about 200 in all between both events, are angry, and many are frightened by how the federal government is handling many things.
The first local demonstration this year was held on the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 events in Washington, D.C., when protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol building. This protest occurred in the wake of the Jan. 3 U.S. military-led raid in Venezuela that resulted in the deaths of more than 80 people and the forced capture and extraction of the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro Moros and his wife Cilia Flores.
The second protest, which took place on Jan. 10, came on the heels of a shooting by ICE agents in Minneapolis that took the life of Renee Good, an American citizen who was the mother of three.
According to The Trace, a nonprofit journalism organization that tracks gun violence in the U.S., there have been 17 incidents in which immigration agents opened fire and another 15 incidents in which agents held someone at gunpoint since the federal government’s immigration crackdown began in June 2025.
The Trace reports that at least three people have been shot while observing or documenting immigration raids, and five people have been shot while driving away from traffic stops or evading an enforcement action. Good was one of four people who have been killed. Another eight people have been injured.
Over the past year, the EVV has covered a half dozen protests in our community. The first was on February 17, Presidents’ Day, 2025, and the second was on March 1, both in Rocky Mountain National Park. These protests concerned staffing and funding cuts in the National Park and the U.S. Forest Service.
The people who live in the Estes Valley are passionate about the parks and forests, and any threat to their stewardship is a rallying call to protect and defend what is truly our backyard.
Again and again, people are showing up with homemade signs to express their concerns about how their government is governing. While the local protests have been peaceful and without incidents, the mood has been serious and has grown more so, and the signs have become increasingly angry.
As a community with more than 40 percent of its population 60 and older, the local protests are made up of many people who came of age during the era of MLK, civil rights demonstrations, and the anti-war protests. They remember the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the 1970 shooting by Ohio National Guard troops that killed four college students and wounded nine others on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio.
While Estes Park is a relatively insulated mountain community, we are not disconnected from what is happening in Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., and other American cities. The people of Estes Park are watching with great interest and deep concern as a national tinderbox feels ready to explode, much as the nation did during the Civil Rights Era and the Vietnam War years.
These grey-haired protesters, willing to brave cold winter temps and stiff mountain winds, know there is a place for non-violent protest in a democratic republic. Watching them as they hold their signs, a scene from the 1976 movie “Network” comes to mind of people opening windows and screaming, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
When Americans are angry, they stand up for what they think is right. They work to right the ship. They show up for protests, line the streets, and hold signs. They write to their congressional representatives, send letters to editors, and post messages on social media. They vote and run for office. And as needed, they will follow the example of Martin Luther King and his words in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
As media, the Estes Valley Voice is also concerned about how best to tell the story of what is happening in our community without putting anyone at risk. Our community is made up of many immigrants who work in local businesses and whose children attend our local school district.
Immigrants are an integral part of our community. During the Citizenship Project celebration at the Estes Park American Legion in September, only four participants were recognized. Organizers of the event said many people who had become naturalized citizens over the past year feared exposing themselves and their family members to immigration authorities.
It is chilling that American citizens fear detention because of the color of their skin or the accent in their voice.
The fears and concerns extend to family and friends across the country. One Estes Park couple has a daughter-in-law who was naturalized 30 years ago. The woman lives in New York City and, out of an abundance of caution, carries her U.S. passport to walk her dog.
One Estes Park woman has a best friend whose Minneapolis daughter-in-law waits in El Paso for a bond hearing after ICE agents dragged her from her vehicle.
A woman who lives in Minneapolis with long-standing family ties to Estes through her grandparents, parents, and as a Cheley camper and staff member wrote a love letter to Minneapolis after the shooting of Renee Good that expresses the fears and frustrations of many. “How can our hearts keep breaking like this?” she wrote.
Martin Luther King viewed protest as a moral obligation and a powerful tool to achieve justice. He emphasized nonviolent direct action, such as sit-ins and marches, to create tension that compels confrontation with injustice, leading to reconciliation and societal growth.
King famously said, “The greatness of America is the right to protest for right. King taught that non-cooperation with evil is as crucial as cooperating with good, viewing it as vital for freedom, democracy, and transforming prejudice into understanding.
The Estes Valley Voice will cover the national Freeameri.ca Walkout demonstration, set to take place across the country on Jan. 20. The local protest will take place along Elkhorn Avenue near Bond Park from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. We will be there to document the ongoing story within the Estes Valley community.
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