I wasn’t planning to engage in activism last Saturday. My tentative plans called for brunch and a bike ride.

But my friend Élisabeth Vallet, who’s a border scholar at Université du Québec à Montréal, issued an invite I couldn’t refuse: a gathering at the Quebec-Vermont frontier was celebrating cross-border friendships and protesting Donald Trump’s toxic politics.

The North American coalition Friends Across Borders was organizing the gathering — one of 40 held that day along the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico. We stood in a field in Frelighsburg, Que., while Americans stood in a field in Berkshire, Vt. A red rope delineated the line separating us.

I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew I wanted to participate in something that would reassure me that people — in both countries — are protesting this U.S. administration’s cruelty. I wasn’t even certain I’d write about it, but after I saw the first sassy signs I knew I would.

David Miskell held one up proclaiming........

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