‘Good Trouble’ protests against Trump spread throughout Northwest

Residents throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington joined thousands of others across the country Thursday to cause a bit of “good trouble” and protest against the Trump administration.

The nationwide “Good Trouble” protest, which marked the fifth anniversary of the death of Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, was the latest in a series of community-based protests against policies from the White House.

The demonstrations took place all across the Portland metro area, with events planned in Estacada, Canby, Portland’s Laurelhurst Park and Willamette Park, as well as outside the state Capitol in Salem. A Good Trouble rally in Vancouver grew large enough to shut down Franklin Street near the Clark County Courthouse.

For retired attorney Vallera Johnson there were about a dozen reasons to join Thursday’s protests. Johnson, who attended the “Good Trouble” rally on the Bethany Boulevard overpass on US 26 in Beaverton, said Trump’s “big beautiful bill,” the termination of foreign aid, the recent crackdown on immigration and the nomination of Emil Bove to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals were all too much.

“It’s so unfair, so undemocratic, and just when I think it can’t get worse, it gets much much worse,” she said.

Johnson was joined on the overpass by Pam Hastreiter, a retired nurse from Beaverton. Hastreiter mentioned her anger with the administration’s assault on reproductive rights. As a former emergency room nurse, Hastreiter said she feels like crying every time she thinks about the deadly impacts of losing access to services like abortion or the morning after pill, particularly for victims of sexual abuse.

Ginny Ross of Indivisible Washington County helped organize the good trouble rally on the Bethany Boulevard overpass.

While Thursday’s demonstrations were a part of a larger nationwide movement, several local organizers are making their activism a weekly occurrence. Ross and Indivisible Washington County hold protests every Saturday at the 185th Avenue overpass over US 26.

Indivisible Oregon members Jackie Cashion and Keir Karson, who organized their own demonstration on the Blumenauer Pedestrian bridge overlooking Interstate 84, hang new signs to the bridge each week bearing a different message. On Thursday, their sign spelled out “Protect our rights, not ICE.”