Opinion: Hey, protesters, speak out against Trump, but leave the incivility to politicians

To the editor: Like every election there are winners and there are losers. Not everyone is happy, but that is no reason to riot in the streets or commit crimes to show your disappointment. (“A quieter sort of anti-Trump protest, with picnic food and calls for action,” Nov. 14)

Every four years the United States has a revolution in the form of an election. It is this process that gives the dissatisfied a chance to change the system. Yes, speaking, marching and peaceful protesting fall under your 1st Amendment rights, but there is no need to be uncivil about it in speech or action.

Let us hope that the affected and discontented will use their vote to bring change, not crimes against people and property, slander and lies. Leave that to the politicians.

Ronald D. Vavak, Los Alamitos

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To the editor: Those of us who are protesting have been committed to action even before this election. Many of us have been working on creating and sustaining change in our communities for years. We’re more than just a group that pops up every election cycle.

We have been agitating the establishment for years. We have been attempting to educate the establishment for years. And now, we are organizing against the establishment, as we have been for years.

We’ve been assaulted, insulted and degraded for decades. So to ask us to “buck up” and “move on” is to legitimize the assaults, insults and the degradation that have kept us on the margins.

We will continue to agitate the establishment. We will continue to educate the establishment. And now, we are organizing against the establishment.

We won’t quit. We won’t accept defeat.

Ernesto Villaseñor, Compton

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To the editor: I empathize with the thousands of people who have taken to the streets across America to protest the election. They are outraged that their values have been rejected.

I felt the same way in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected president.

Ken Grow, Newbury Park

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To the editor: People aren’t angry and scared and protesting over Trump, and they aren’t marching because they were so in love with Hillary Clinton.

They’re angry and upset and protesting because somebody just ran for president on a platform of racism, jingoism, misogyny and homophobia, and almost half of their fellow American voters said, “Finally, someone who gets me and tells it like it is.”

John Durham III, Los Angeles

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