I recently went to a Trump protest and ended up co-hosting the Facebook event and helped organize it. I knew that what we were doing could possibly be dangerous, but if not us, who would do it? Who would speak up for the voiceless in our country? The voiceless that include undocumented people, voters who were intimidated, victims of strict voting laws, and people who may have their green card, but not their citizenship. We spoke for the majority of the United States, and that was clear by the popular vote. However, the other side spoke as well. They were loud, rude, and hateful. Here are some of the things I heard and witnessed at our successful, peaceful protest in Huntington Beach, CA.
Photo Attribution: Gracie Harding
"You should kill yourself. Don't even call the suicide hotline, you'll be doing us a favor." This was the worst one by far.
"Here is some toilet paper for your tears." (This guy was so committed to his joke and actually brought a roll of toilet paper for us AFTER the protest was over)
The classic, "Make America Great Again."
"Go back home," and of course our response was, WE ARE HOME.
"T-R-U-M-P, We Beat Killary," was yelled from a man on a bike with his three kids following him and laughing as he circled around the area we were at.
There was also a man who continued to ride his bike over our extra signs, but in the end, we had no extra signs. We had supporters come and join us and pick up signs and stand with us.
There were many shouts along the lines of "get over it," of course, not that polite.
Photo Attribution: Gracie Harding
But then there were the others.
The people who came up to us and gave us hugs. Who went one by one to shake our hands. The people who gave us high fives. The people that thanked us for what we were doing.
Photo Attribution: Gracie Harding
Those are the people who make all of this worth it. It shows we are making a difference for the better and people are noticing. When people see these things, they tell their friends, and then it starts to spread. We made a difference. We voiced our opinions and came together to say that Donald Trump is not our President.
Photo Attribution: Kaitlyn Hodge
So what is next? Well, we keep protesting. We get involved. We volunteer and intern on democratic campaigns to take back the House and the Senate in 2018. We show Donald Trump that we will not go down without a fight. We will not simply lie down as our rights are plucked from us one by one as women, immigrants, LGBTQ, people of color, Muslims, transgender, and as humans.
On November 12th, we did the most American thing we could. Our country was based upon protest, and one of the most successful protests in history was the Boston Tea Party. We protested. We spoke up for the voiceless. We exercised our First Amendment right. We were not un-American or un-democratic by not "accepting" the results of the election as many people told us.
We were being as American as we know how to be
