On June 26, 2020, the Standup Movement hosted a protest march in the rural town of Estacada, OR. Estacada is about 30 miles southeast of Portland, Oregon. The population on the city limit signs claims roughly 3,300 people live in town. As with many rural communities, Estacada is represented by both gun-loving “patriots” and those whose visions of the future include equality and equity for all.
On Monday, June 22, the Mayor of Estacada, Sean Drinkwine, made a poorly worded statement on the Estacada Neighborhood Watch, Uncensored Facebook group page. This group is occupied by people I feel are mean-spirited and spend way too much time watching Fox News. I left the group a couple of weeks ago; therefore, I do not know what precipitated this statement.
Understandably, this comment caused a stir on the regular Estacada Neighborhood Watch page, and the information made it the press. Before the end of the day, the Estacada Stand Up Movement was born, and a march was scheduled for Friday, June 26 at 6 PM.
The Mayor was forced to make a formal retraction statement.
Leading up to the march, many community members were disheartened that #BLM or “ANTIFA” would be coming to town. Rumors circulated that “buses of outsiders” would come to town or the town Logger (a wooden statue at city hall) would be burned—militant groups of “concerned citizens” organized as well.
(Deleted broken links here. The moral of the story is: add screenshots in the future. 03/18/2021)
Sadly, some people in this world want to hold others back based on their skin color. Those who want to believe because you seek to support equality that you are a “hate group.” They take everything good about movements and find ways to turn them into something to be feared. Black lives SHOULD matter. It should not be debatable. We should not have to take to the streets to protest an end to police brutality. We should not find ways to normalize that brutality or blame the victims. Everyone should be SAFE, no matter their skin color, sex, sexual orientation, and until that happens, there will be movements, protests, marches, and perhaps riots (what do you think the Boston Tea Party was?) until the powers that be can figure out ways to end discrimination.
We should not have to defend ourselves against ridiculous fears born from nowhere but someone else’s imagination.