The mid-afternoon weekday time didn't deter protesters who gathered Tuesday, Jan. 20, for the "Free America Walkout" along Ellsworth Street, from Third Avenue to Fifth Avenue, in downtown Albany. Most of the more than 100 protesters were retirees, but more than a handful of them heeded the call to walk out of work.
  Free America Walkout protests were also held in Corvallis and around the nation. The Albany protest was organized by Albany Region Indivisible, which also hosts Honk & Waves protests from 3 to 5 p.m every Friday at Fourth and Ellsworth.
  The Women's March, primary national coordinator of Free America Walkout, posted this statement on its website:
   "One year into Trump’s second regime, we face an escalating fascist threat: ICE raids on our communities, troops occupying our cities, families torn apart, attacks 

Video: Marcie Howard

  Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Janelle Bynum fielded questions about canceled federal grants, ICE, student loan repayment, housing affordability and the confusion and uncertainties of bad Trump Administration policies during their hourlong town hall Jan. 18 at Linn-Benton Community College. But it was Ana Lila Godinez of Sweet Home whose passionate story riveted the crowd at the Russell Tripp Performance Center.
  “Am I the only one that cries to see our country the way it is?” Godinez said through tears. “My parents came here legally from Mexico in the ‘60s. I’m a first generation Mexican (American). I’m so proud. I consider myself a patriot.” But she said it hurts to see how Donald Trump, “this man full of hate and racism” is getting everybody to fight against each other — "divide and conquer.”
  “If the United States fights each other, then we won’t be paying attention to all the stupidity and insanity that’s he’s causing in our world,” she said; “First, Venezuela, then Greenland. He’s getting away with it. … It wasn’t like this when I was growing up.”
  Godinez then talked about personal challenges she has faced. When her middle son was in Army boot camp a decade ago, his wife gave gave birth in Texas to a severely disabled baby girl who was given six weeks to live. The mother couldn’t take care of the baby, so Godinez brought the child to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland and later adopted her. The girl, who will turn 10 in March, requires constant care.
   Godinez, who does full-time caregiving for the child and has assistance from other caregivers, worries about her health care benefits.” I got a letter that they’re going to cut hours,” she said.
   Her youngest son, who had been one of the caregivers for seven years, committed suicide in 2024 at age 25. “He was gay, he felt he didn’t fit in, he felt our country was not a safe place for him. He’s gone, and he was the one who helped me with the baby this whole time,” she said. And her son who served in the Army has PTSD.
  “What’s going to happen with our health insurance? What’s going to happen to our world.” she said. “The world proceeds, but I feel the war’s coming here now. … This is not the America we were born in. This is not the America my parents came to.”
   America is not a melting pot but a “salad,” she said. “And everything works together. We have our own individuality, our own importance in that salad. … It’s everybody coming together, working together and 
​loving each other as God commands. Love your neighbor as yourself, not just because they’re white, black, gay, straight, bi or trans. He (Jesus) said love each other.”