No Kings, No Strings

 

    LEBANON – On June 14, many probably wondered why people lined the streets between Lebanon, Albany, Corvallis – and across the country.

    The “No Kings” protest happened during the day of the U.S. Army parade in Washington, D.C., and on President Donald Trump's birthday. The protest opposed the policies and actions of the Trump administration.

    The Lebanon event was organized by East Linn Indivisible. They joined in the protest in Lebanon as well as Albany. If you want to learn more about East Linn Indivisible, see their Facebook group.

    At noon, the group of people there was less than 70. Within 30 minutes the headcount was 180. At 1:30 p.m., the headcount had swelled to 250. In a social media post, Linn County Democrats shared “13.14 million in attendance across 2,300-plus No Kings protests nationwide.” This protest came in third for U.S. protests in recent years – exceeded by the George Floyd protests in 2020, and Earth Day in 1975.




    During this event, less than 100 people between the two events seemed opposed to the primary message of the protesters. They yelled anything from “Let’s go Trump, Trump 2024” to profanities, or simply flipped everyone off or showed a thumbs down.



    I spoke to Karen Schueller and Ruth Kish, both organizers of the event, along with Dorrie Board. Board was the safety person of the protest and was able to answer some questions:

What is your organization about?

    Our chapter is a part of a national organization that is connected through Indivisible. In fact, right now there are No Kings rallies going on all over the United States, and even across the world in support of our movement. They also have organized and helped people, like giving them the tools to know how to organize safely and correctly. It's nice to be sponsored by them rather than just kind of going in cold, not knowing what to do. Plus, all the things are posted, where things are happening, when they're happening, steps to take, etc.

How do you feel about the counter protesters?

    If somebody comes up and crosses the street to protest, we ignore them. It's their freedom of speech. If they get aggressive, that's why I'm here to de-escalate. If they don't de-escalate and they try to get violent, that's when we call the police. So we have a lot of protocol built in. Some people listen, some people don't.

Does the city of Lebanon know that you are here protesting?

    Yes, the city knows and the police department. The police department is literally fine with this. They will be here if we need them. And it's been so far, so good though.

 

    After talking with Board, I asked others if they were willing to give a statement on what was going on, many refused to comment. Some said, “Have fun and be safe!”

    An individual from the Lebanon Police Department provided a statement: “Lebanon Police is aware and is monitoring the situation from afar for all individuals involved. When needed or requested, we will step in. Protesting is under our constitution as our First Amendment right for everyone on both sides.”


    During the protest, I encountered one person who was counter-protesting. Jeff Surgeon was visiting his friends at a local barbeque competition. He was willing to do a short Q&A:

How do you feel about the protests across the road?

    I mean, everybody's entitled to protest. As long as they do it peacefully, they're doing it peacefully. State your voice, don't destroy property, don't hurt cops, don't destroy property because you're mad at someone or something. Of course, we can all agree to disagree. That's why I'm just standing here. I actually am from Beaverton and came down to watch my friends do a barbecue competition. They're from Washington, and I drove by this, and I'm like, I'm going to go watch this.

Are you for peaceful protests?

    Yeah, I'm for peaceful protests. As long as they're not destroying stuff. I am a Trump person too. I voted for him three times. 2016, 2020, and this go around too. I'm also a Marine Corps veteran. There's people that are like, he's not for veterans. And I'm like, no, he does good things for veterans.

What would you say the turnout for people not supporting Trump is a lot?

    Yeah. I didn’t expect a lot of people to be out here today. Especially for a small town like Lebanon. I also am questioning how many of them are actually from Lebanon? How many of them came from Salem or Portland or some of the bigger cities? Just to spread the anti-Trump.

Do you expect more people to be on the side of the road counter protesting?

    I think they're just not interested in starting a conflict. And neither am I. I'm just coming down here to watch, and see what's going on.


Other photos from the protest in both Lebanon and Albany:


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