Despite rain, some still show up to make ‘Good Trouble’ at DeKalb protest

Heavy rains that passed through DeKalb Saturday morning didn’t stop protestors from demonstrating outside Hopkins Park as part of a series of protests organized to show opposition to President Donald Trump .

The gathering was one of many national protests organized in opposition to the Trump administration this year. Though some groups including the League of Women Voters of DeKalb County announced shortly before the planned demonstration that the morning’s weather had canceled the event, many didn’t heed that.

Protestors who arrived after the rain subsided said they either didn’t see the cancelation or, like Steve Kapitan, decided to show up regardless.

“We decided to come out anyway even though the official organizers canceled due to the rain threat,” Kapitan said. “I’m out to make peaceful good trouble, as the theme is for today.”

Thousands of other protests, mostly held Thursday across the country dubbed “Good Trouble Lives On,” were meant to respond to “attacks on our civil and human rights by the Trump administration,” according to the movement’s website. The protests were meant to be peaceful and nonviolent, reflecting the U.S. Rep. John Lewis’ approach. The fifth anniversary of the death of the late civil rights icon was July 17. He coined the term “Get in good trouble.”

[ Photos: ‘Good Trouble’ protest photos from across northern Illinois ]

“It reminds us of the heroic life that John Lewis led,” DeKalb resident Greg Romaneck said. “I think John Lewis was an example of that. He worked with Republicans, he worked with the Conservative Democrats, he worked with liberals to get things done, and that’s what we need to do.”

Reflecting on protests over time that DeKalb residents have lived through, such as during the Vietnam War and protests for environmental issues, Romaneck said to him, the recent “No Kings” protests stand out.

“The thing that makes this so much more visceral, [is] we have a president now who does things that no other president in the modern era has ever done,” Romaneck said. “He speaks in a way that others have not. That’s not the normal behavior for the office.”

Kapitan, a Democrat, said he disagreed with what he called aggressive ways in which the Trump administration has enacted its agenda.

“The way he’s going about it is not politically appropriate in a democracy,” he said.

Pushback against Trump so far in his second term has centered on deportations and immigration enforcement tactics, The Associated Press reported. Other actions taken during Trump’s second term that have this week sparked national turmoil include cuts to public broadcasting including NPR and PBS, as-not-yet released documents related to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein’s case.

In DeKalb, multiple “No Kings” protests since Trump’s inauguration also have centered around cuts to higher education, unions and the labor movement, Medicaid and Social Security and more.

As the rain tapered off in DeKalb, more the group grew to about 25.

“I’m impressed. I was scheduled to be here earlier but I thought it was canceled,” Romaneck said. “My wife came home from going to a restaurant down there (near Hopkins). She said ‘There’s eight people out there.’ I said ‘Well OK.’ I felt guilty and I came out. That in a way is symbolic not of my effort but that people get tired of the noise that happens. you still have to stay tuned in and you still have to participate. We owe a responsibility to our fellow citizens.”