Blue Water Indivisible, a non-partisan Blue Water Area grassroots movement connected directly with indivisible.org, recently organized a local “Hands Off” march on April 5, as well as a kickoff event on April 14 where a Day of Action on April 19 was discussed.
Blue Water Indivisible was formed for the primary purpose of engaging concerned citizens in the Blue Water region, according to bluewaterindivisible.com. The group believes that “democracy is currently under threat,” the website states.
“We seek to make that threat visible and to engage a diverse coalition of local residents, regardless of their individual beliefs, in the struggle to protect the constitutional rights and protections of every member of our community,” the website reads.
Blue Water Indivisible member Mary Lou Creamer said Indivisible was founded in 2016 in response to President Donald Trump’s first election.
“Its goal is to build a democracy that reflects a broad, multiracial ‘we the people,’ one that works for all and is sustained by all, not just the ultra-rich and white nationals,” she said. “To do this, there is a plan. To quote indivisible.org, ‘The opposition depends on a divide and conquer strategy, Indivisible treats an attack on one like an attack on all. Indivisible members show up for each other and particularly for those facing the brunt of right-wing ideologues’ attacks — immigrants, people of color and low-income people.’”
“Indivisible began as the Indivisible Guide, a Google Doc guide to organizing locally to pressure elected officials to resist the far-right’s agenda,” she continued. “It caught fire as millions of people picked up the guide and its name — Indivisible — and organized their own local Indivisible groups to put the guide into action. Today, the Indivisible movement is a progressive grassroots movement from the ground up of millions of activists across every state.”
Creamer said Blue Water Indivisible is now one of more than 3,000 groups spanning every congressional district nationwide, all of which began with the Indivisible Guide drafted in 2016 by husband-and-wife team Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin.
“Now an online network of groups, Indivisible prides itself on being of, by and for the people working together to protect and improve our democracy,” she said. “This multi-generational, multi-cultural and multi-racial movement promotes right over wrong, not left versus right. They have developed trainings in everything from new group development to the truth brigade, which focuses on thoughtful ways in which to address misinformation, to de-escalation tactics for those moments when our peaceful rallies encounter counter-protestors. We also are supported with training and information by Statewide Indivisible Michigan, also known as SWIM. It’s pretty amazing.”
Blue Water Indivisible was born out of “the overwhelming angst” of three Port Huron Northern High School Class of 1980 classmates, Creamer said.
“We had reconnected on Facebook over our mutual frustration of facing Trump 2.0, Project 2025 and the dreaded fallout of his never-ending chaos,” she said. “We gathered one evening to ‘wine and whine’ and decided we needed to do more than whine.”
“At our next meeting, we were a group of five who decided we should survey friends as to what they were feeling in this moment,” she continued. “So we sent out 40 surveys asking women to rank which topics had them most concerned and what they might be willing to do to push back. When we received 40 responses that were nearly unanimous in their replies, we knew we were onto something. We played around with names for our newly formed group and landed on Blue Water Indivisible, but it wasn’t until a friend noted that the Indivisible name was in use already that we connected to the national movement.”
She said the group has been registered with the national movement for more than a month now, which enables anyone visiting indivisible.org to find a local group.
“Just a click on our link connects visitors directly with us,” she said. “We currently have 638 members in our Facebook group, including women, men, young and old, members of the LGBT+ community, veterans and more.”
The Port Huron “Hands Off” march on April 5 was part of a national day of protest organized by a collective of partners that comprise 50501 — 50 protests, 50 states, one movement, Creamer said.
“Marches and protests took place in cities, both big and small, across the country,” she said. “When we began organizing our local march, we really had no idea how many people would show up. We joked it might just be our organizing group. Instead, the turnout was astounding. More than 700 people took part in our walk. That alone is amazing for Port Huron.”
She said one of the best highlights of the day was the cross-section of ages of the participants, “from babies in strollers to folks in their 80s.”
“People are mad,” she said. “They are worried about the status of this country and what is going on in Washington, D.C. We heard from many that day how much better they felt to know they are not alone in their angst.”
“Even more amazing was the response to the pre-march protest,” she continued. “People lined Pine Grove Avenue with their signs and the response of support from passing motorists was incredible. I think, as an organization, we in Blue Water Indivisible are proud that we had so many people there to participate and we did not have one problem. We also learned that people are anxious to keep doing things. They want more.”
Creamer said the Blue Water Indivisible kickoff event that took place at Sturges Memorial Congregational Church on April 14 went well.
“Our core group has been meeting for weeks and has worked hard to be organized,” she said. “We have the guidance of a national-level Indivisible mentor with whom founders met in March and he provided a lot of useful tips, and more importantly reinforcement of what Indivisible is, a non-partisan, grassroots movement open to everyone willing to do the work of saving and improving our democracy.”
“We understand this is not a short-term battle and because of that we need to increase our numbers into something sustainable,” she continued. “We planned the meeting to be an overview of the nitty-gritty, so to speak, and to sign attendees up for work groups with specific responsibilities. Once again, we had no idea how many people to expect — and every seat in the church gathering room was full, with a few people having to stand. We didn’t think to count, but a guesstimate would be safe at 60-plus.”
Creamer said the group’s first accomplishment was to settle plans for its Day of Action, also a 50501-promoted idea, on April 19.
“We are hosting a food drive and march,” she said. “We are asking participants to bring a canned food and a sign. Two new members are bringing pickup trucks in which to collect canned goods that will be taken to Sturges Memorial Congregational Church as they maintain a food pantry for the neighborhood. After a brief rally for information sharing, we will march to Huron Avenue. We will start at 1 p.m. along the sidewalk in front of the St. Clair County Courthouse and wrap things up on Huron Avenue at 3 p.m.”
For more information about Blue Water Indivisible, go to bluewaterindivisible.com or search for the group on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
“Please watch out for us in the community, where we have plans to be involved in as many community events as possible — and to be doing our part to make the Blue Water Area the great place to live that it is,” Creamer said.
