Why hundreds of demonstrators lined Gway to greet Richland commuters
If you were commuting home Thursday on George Washington Way, chances are you got a smile and brisk wave of the hand from Tanya Lasuk.
Dressed in her best shades and sunhat, the spunky 73-year-old Kennewick stood out greeting 5 p.m. Richland commuters while holding a sign that read “Hands Off National Parks.”
What does Lasuk hope drivers will take away?
“That this is so much fun they want to come down and do it themselves,” she said.
She was one of more than 400 who took to the Richland street to protest the Trump Administration and make a May Day statement in support of workers and the labor movement.
The event was organized by Indivisible Tri-Cities, a local chapter of the national Indivisible organization. The group is rallying anti-Trump and Elon Musk sentiment and holding several protests around Tri-Cities.
“I just get stabbing pain in my heart every time I read the news,” Lasuk said.
She mentioned the recent ICE arrest of Sergio Cerdio Gomez, a 42-year-old Pasco man, at a routine immigration hearing. He’d been working to obtain a green card or citizenship.
Gomez and his wife, Gabrielle “Gabby” Cerdio, own the Hibachi Explosion food truck on Clearwater Avenue.
Lasuk also worries about funding for scientific research and vaccines.
“This is just cruelty. This isn’t effective, this isn’t efficiency,” she said.
Lasuk said people are realizing there’s a resistance to participate in and that they don’t have to “sit at home and just be depressed.”
She doesn’t believe America is as divided as it was during the protests for Civil Rights or ending the Vietnam War.
“You want to see divided, that was divided. This is a cake walk,” she said.
Indivisible Tri-Cities will march in the Pasco Cinco de Mayo Parade, set for 10 a.m. Saturday.
