Speakers at Resident's Day Rally Voice Concerns

More than 30 organizations partnered and drew more than 1,000 people for a Residents Day Rally and March on Monday, Feb. 17, to counter the onslaught of executive orders and actions. Speakers challenged the exploitation, white supremacy, profiteering, imperialism, misogyny and authoritarianism they see.

The following are excerpts of speakers:

Pastor Walter Kendricks of Morningstar Baptist Church, said. "We are here to lift our voices to say we have had enough. We know freedom comes with a price. I am not afraid anymore. Enough is enough."

Pui-Yan Lam, an immigrant from Hong Kong who is citizen and sociology professor at Eastern Washington University, said, "We must not be afraid of the threats of an authoritarian regime that seeks to destroy education. It fears the liberating power of education. Knowledge sets us free. Being from Hong Kong, I have seen what happens. This is no time to hesitate. Ask elected officials to stand for schools and universities to protect academic freedom.

Kurtis Robinson, executive director of Revive Center for Returning Citizens/I Did The Time, said, "We have a lot of work to do. We must not just point our fingers but also look at ourselves. We can capture the opportunity in this adversity and be the change we need to see by doing work in us, while doing the work around us. We came to march. What is next? It's time to get to work.

Pat Castenada said that as director of Manzanita House, a citizen and immigrant from Venezuela, "I cannot keep quiet. I refuse to watch my fellow immigrants live in fear, to see families separated, to see our friends forced into the shadows. This is not the America I believe in. This is not the Spokane we are building together."

Mark Finney, pastor of Emmaus Church and founding director of Thrive, said that in the nine years he has worked with refugees, 4,000 have come to Spokane. "Bienvenidos. You are welcome. You bring so much to our community." This is Residents Day—of the people, by the people and for the people.

"Someone has captured our flag," he said, pointing out that 80 years ago his grandfather fought Nazis in World War II. Now, 80 years later, I will not give up this flag," he said, pointing out that one pledges allegiance to the flag and the republic for which it stands, "one nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

"I am here for Black people, White people, Asians, Latinos, Indigenous and Islanders, people born here and immigrants, gay, straight and queer," he said inviting a litany of response to whose state, city, nation, flag, freedom and future the people were marching for: "Ours!"

Anwar Peace of the Police Accountability Board said that in 1994 Congress gave the Department of Justice authority to investigate police departments for patterns and practices of Use-of-Force abuses and/or misconduct. In the last 51 days in Spokane, he said, three people were killed by police. He also calls on City Council to prohibit police from working with ICE.

Evee Polanski of the Spokane Coalition Against Racism who is now a naturalized citizen, told of 32 years being undocumented, brought from Mexico in 1991 by her parents, then hiding and assimilating, afraid and ashamed. One day her parents were gone, picked up by ICE. She feared working because she was on DACA and did not want that to happen to her children. "I fight for my brothers and sisters who live in the shadows, facing oppression," she said.

War Bear, an EWU student of Lakota, Dakota and Cheyenne tribes, was invited to give a land acknowledgement but challenged that too often land acknowledgements are tokenism. "We need sovereignty citizen rights now. We have had seven generations of genocide, mutilation, rape and more. My people have been here 40,000 years. If you are not indigenous, you are an immigrant. If you act like a relative, you are a relative. If you act like a colonizer, you are my enemy. If you are a relative, come to our ceremonies. My people have been resisting for 533 years. We are here. We are strong. We are resilient. We are survivors."

Pat Castenada from Manzanita House said, "We are here today as neighbors, as friends, as community members, and as people who refuse to stay silent in the face of injustice. We are here because immigrants and refugees—our families, our friends, and our coworkers—are under attack. Policies meant to dehumanize, to exclude, and to create fear are tearing apart our communities. But we are here to say: Not in our city. Not in our name. Not on our watch.

I stand before you as the Director of Manzanita House, as a representative of the Eastern Washington Refugee Coalition, as a citizen of this country, and as a Venezuelan immigrant. And I cannot keep quiet. I refuse to watch my fellow immigrants live in fear, to see families separated, to see our friends forced into the shadows. That is not the America we believe in. That is not the Spokane we are building together.

The tactics of this administration are clear: create chaos, fuel division, and manufacture crises that harm the most vulnerable. But we see through their games. We know that when the rights of one of us are threatened, the rights of all of us are at risk. And we know that a city, a country, a home is strongest when it is built on justice, compassion, and dignity.

Every day at Manzanita House, I see the incredible contributions of immigrants—working hard, raising families, starting businesses, serving our community. We make Spokane stronger. We make it richer in culture, in resilience, in hope. And we will not be erased. We will not be silenced.

So today, I call on each of you: Stay loud. Stay united. Fight for policies that protect, not punish. Demand dignity for all. And most of all, remind everyone—our city, our state, our country—that Spokane belongs to all of us."

Organizers of the march called on city and county, and on state legislators to take immediate action to codify protections and rights that are increasingly under threat at the federal level.

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