Anti-Trump protest in north Spokane draws ‘Good Trouble’ in the hundreds

More than 400 people gathered in a north Spokane park Thursday to protest the Trump administration.

The crowd lined the shaded sidewalks of B.A. Clark Park, boasting hand-crafted signs and flags. Their cheers, drums and bells were met with honks from passing vehicles on Division Street.

The demonstration was one of many nationally, called Good Trouble Lives On in reference to late congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis.

“Whether you’re outraged by attacks on voting rights, the gutting of essential services, disappearances of our neighbors, or the assault on free speech and our right to protest,” the Good Trouble Lives On website states, “this movement is for you.”

Cynthia Hamilton with Indivisible Spokane was the lead planner of the area event. She said the event was “successful” and there was no property damage. In her words, the protest was intended to “wake up America.”

“These rights are real and they are being taken away from you and we need to learn to make a little good trouble,” she said.

Attendees shared similar sentiments.

“The more people that come out and show up, hopefully makes a statement that we’re paying attention and we don’t approve of what’s going on in our country,” protester Eliza Hughes, 44, said.

One man, in an attempt to begin a chant, used a megaphone to project: “Hey-hey, ho-ho, Donald Trump has got to go.”

For Sherry and Bill Mitchell, the protest was only one of many on their radar. The pair routinely travel from Idaho to take part in Spokane protests, saying, “We don’t go to protests in Idaho because we’re scared.”

“We come over here whenever we get the chance to protest against what’s happening with our government,” Sherry Mitchell said. “Pretty much every facet of life is affected for us.”

She rattled off her reasons for protesting: immigrant treatment, cuts to Medicaid and environmental issues. Many signs across the crowd featured the same concerns.

Some of the attendees were part of the international Raging Grannies organization. The group is known for the old-fashioned outfits and satirical songs they bring to demonstrations.

“A lot of us were in the Civil Rights movement back in the day and it’s just very discouraging to see. It feels like we’re losing everything we gained back then,” Raging Granny Diane Lloyd said. “We never thought that 56 years later, when we’re all 80, we would still be doing this, again.”