KEPW’s Jana Thrift reports live from the MLK Day march

Speaker Jan. 19 during the combined Day Without An Immigrant protest and MLK Day march from Autzen to the Shedd, KEPW was there. Jana Thrift:

Marchers We are unstoppable. Another world is possible. 

Jana Thrift I love this one. Another world is possible. We are unstoppable. Another world is possible. We are unstoppable. Another world is possible.

Yeah, we’re just narrating the chants a little for you guys. So in case you don’t hear that, that’s a good one. And we’re just making our way to the Shedd by the longest route possible, which is awesome because that’s an effort to be seen, right? (Another world is possible. We are unstoppable. Another world is possible.)

We’re on our way to the Shedd Institute, another wonderful local venue where lots of folks can go to listen to local artists and national artists. (¡Sí, se puede! See, even the turkeys are joining us.) Yeah, we’ve got turkeys in the protest march. 

I’m not quite sure if they’re calling MLK March exactly a protest, but for me, it’s all about protesting because I feel like I’ve just got to stand up and say, ‘Enough is enough.’ This is not okay. This is not what I believe America stands for. And I don’t believe most people think it’s what America stands for. 

And I think that these peaceful protests are meant to say: We want our democracy back, and we’re not going to let it go away without peacefully protesting, marching up, fight back, showing up to say enough is enough. 

This is about peace and peace on our streets, peace in families’ homes that don’t deserve to have their doors knocked in, or just drug out of their asylum hearing, not because they’re criminals, but because they’re doing what they’re supposed to do. 

I mean, like, how do you say: ‘You came here and now we’re going to take away your right to be here so you’re illegal, and we’re going to arrest you and detain you and put you into custody,’ where they’re clearly not treating people right. You don’t have people dying in custody unless they’re being mistreated. You don’t have people shooting people dead, women, because everything’s going right. That’s not how it works. 

We’re about to walk by the building where this is all going down, where they’re actually incarcerating people that are showing up to do the right thing as an immigrant in this country.

Marchers ICE out! ICE out! No justice, no peace, ICE off our streets. Hey Hey Ho Ho, ICE has got to go.

So I’m livestreaming for KEPW but I’ll tell you right now: Listen to Legalize Survival this Wednesday. We have a great interview with Jetty Etty at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, and then she goes to a beautiful laundry list of all the things you can do. Jetty Etty has been protesting at the ICE building since June, and she’s a fabulous human, so it’s a really great interview.

Check that out and and hear from her all the different ways that you might pitch in towards helping. We got to make a difference here. We got to be the ones. This is it…

We are almost to the Shedd Institute where they will continue the MLK celebration, let’s call it. We’re celebrating the life of somebody who changed this nation for the better, and we’re doing it in a way where we’re showing up with other people trying to change this nation for the better. And the struggle goes on, but we’re here and we’re doing it. So…

Marchers (Money for jobs and education, not for mass deportation.) Who here loves their immigrant neighbors? (Woo!)

Jana Thrift (KEPW) Yeah, we are in the streets, yes, we are. Permitted, of course, where the police department in Eugene is doing what it’s supposed to do, which is watch a peaceful protest be heard. Because the right to protest is a right in this country, even if a single president thinks that he can tell us that the rights we were given by our Constitution and our forefathers, he is able to take it away. But I don’t think we’re going to let that happen, and 

(Ain’t no power like the power of the people ’cause the power don’t stop. Say what?) 

We know how to meet hate with love here in Eugene. I love the new protest on Tuesdays, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.: Love and Rage. So a little rage is healthy, you know? Rage is different than violence. I think that that’s one of the messages that came from MLK. You know, he believed in civil disobedience. He also believed in nonviolence. And he stood for both of those things. 

And to this day we are able to find that still, you know, we know how to be nonviolent in Eugene and still say: Enough is enough. And today is a perfect example of that. We have to do whatever we can and show up. And there’s so many people doing good stuff.

There’s so many groups uniting. There’s the group ACES, made up of many different progressive groups in Eugene that are trying to unite and figure out what can we do to make a stand. And there’s lots of different ways to do it. And this is one of them, showing up here at the MLK March… 

We’ve officially made it. I was really hoping to see if I can find this table where Eric Richardson is, and at least get a little input from him about how Beyond Toxics did with their Resilient Oregon survey campaign this morning. 

But we’re going to see if we can find Eric. Oh, look at all the different groups we’ve got. Health Care For All Oregon. Boy, that’s one of those things that is super important that I think that we’re all going to be facing more and more of a struggle around. 

And then the NAACP sponsored this event. Beyond Toxics is here talking about a Resilient Oregon. We’ve got quite a few different groups here. So let’s see if we can touch bases with somebody.

Celebrating our roots, building our future: The Black Cultural Initiative at 1695 Jefferson St., Eugene, Oregon. The HIV Alliance.

So I’m going to get one last word, maybe, from Eric Richardson here. And then we’re going to go off the air and call it a wrap. This has been the MLK march and event to honor MLK’s amazing legacy and being there for us with his words, his amazing words. All these years later, we are celebrating what he stood for and it’s more important than ever. 

So I want to invite Eric to say something live on the air at KEPW about the MLK march here. And we just went through the dot surveys and talked a lot with the woman at the desk there, but I was just hoping maybe you could tell us a little bit more about the Oregon Resilient campaign that Beyond Toxics is doing. 

Eric Richardson (Beyond Toxics) Yeah. So this is a campaign that the governor’s office just came out with. A couple months ago, they announced A Plan for a Resilient Oregon. And basically what it is, she has contracted with over 25 nonprofits throughout the state, to go into community and hear from community about their understanding or concerns around resiliency.

And so, like you were talking about our dot board today, they’re asking about natural hazards that have impacted the community and just want to hear back from the community. 

So we’re just one of the organizations doing this work, and we will continue to have engagements with community in between now and April 1 when the governor would like all this information to be forwarded to the office, and then they’re going to be using this information to inform her ‘27-’29 budget considerations. 

And so we hope that we’ll be able to see some money come back to community for local efforts around food security, around environmental climate justice, and whatnot. 

Jana Thrift (KEPW) That’s fabulous. Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Eric. (Yeah. Thank you.) And being a part of this. BeyondToxics org, you can find more information there all about it. 

We’re going to call it a wrap for KEPW and say thank you, everybody, for listening to KEPW. This has been a live-on-the-air coverage of the MLK protest here in Eugene, Oregon.

Presenter Jana Thrift. You can hear Jana’s interview with Jetty Etty this Wednesday at 7 p.m. on Legalize Survival.