On One Side of a Swollen River, Portland Hosts the Rose Parade. On the Other, a March Against Guns.

Portlanders marched in different moods, for different reasons.

Grand Floral Parade. (Michael Raines)
By Michael Raines

Portland events on Saturday showed a city returning to normal—and how far we still have to travel.

A summer rainstorm eased on June 11 long enough for the resumption of the Rose Festival’s Grand Floral Parade. The first Rose Parade that Portland has seen since the pandemic descended, it featured marching bands, colorful floats, and Bill Schonely, the recently retired eminence of Blazers broadcasting.

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The parade’s route twisted from the Oregon Convention Center across Northeast Portland. Across the Willamette River—which had swollen by 2 feet in a day, enough to shut down the floating portion of the Eastbank Esplanade—families marched for a different reason: fury over unabated gun violence.

The “Portland March for Our Lives” was one of dozens across the nation. The annual marches began in 2018 after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. Weeks after another school massacre in Texas, the message remains unchanged: Congress must break out of its hypnosis by the National Rifle Association.

“Am I next?” one sign asked.

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