Washington, D.C. is 2,819 miles from Eugene. Even with the loudest speakers and if President Donald Trump had a super bat-like sense of hearing, he couldn’t hear protesters in Eugene from the Oval Office because he’s at Mar-a-Lago right now.
Undaunted, more than 100 protesters stood in front of the Wayne Lyman Morse United States Courthouse Feb. 18, to denounce Trump’s “national emergency” declaration to secure funding for his border wall. The rally was organized by Indivisible Eugene, a local branch of Indivisible — a group that aims to dismantle the Trump agenda. The rally didn’t have a permit to march, so it ended with chants.
Jerry Samaniego, one of the organizers of the event, says he was ready to protest on Saturday.
“By the time the president got done speaking on Friday, I was hopping mad,” Samaniego tells Eugene Weekly. “He spewed all kinds of untruth. His demonizing of immigrants and distortion of the truth.”
He adds that by having a protest on Presidents Day, it not only gave more time to organize but it offered more symbolism.
“Not getting your way is not an emergency,” Samaniego says. “That’s what toddlers and tinpot dictators do.”
The protest organized through Facebook, email, ResistBot and MoveOn.org.
During the rally, Samaniego invited a speaker from Moms Demand Action to talk about a “legitimate” national emergency: gun violence.
Attendees were encouraged to write postcards to Rep. Peter DeFazio and Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley. Samaniego urged people to attend Wyden’s upcoming town hall to push the senator to fight the Trump declaration.
Wyden has been vocal in opposing Trump’s decision, taking to Twitter to say damage from Trump’s fragile ego is the only real national emergency. Wyden will have the town hall meeting at 1:30 pm tomorrow, Feb. 19, at Cottage Grove High School, located at 1375 S. River Rd.
Trump’s national emergency on the wall even occupied time during DeFazio’s town hall meeting at Lane Community College last month. DeFazio asked if Trump made the declaration, what would stop a president from the Democratic Party declaring climate change or education a national emergency?
Eugene was only one of many cities to organize a protest against Trump’s national emergency declaration.
A Note From the Publisher
Dear Readers,
The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.
That’s because of you!
Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.
Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.
We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.
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Thank you for standing with us!
Publisher
Eugene Weekly
P.S. If you’d like to talk about supporting EW, I’d love to hear from you!
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