‘Deport Trump!’ Angelinos react on Inauguration Day

‘We said Bernie or bust. No Bernie? It’s time we bust.’

Some Americans will look back on the 20th of January, 2017 as a day of infamy. That’s how many Americans in Los Angeles felt as some might think of it as the first day of the Trump apocalypse. A rally held on inauguration day by the “Los Angeles Resistance Coalition” allowed Angelinos the opportunity to express their feelings on President Trump. The rally began with a march, followed by a panel of speakers ranging from an actor, comedian, and several members of non-profit organizations. The goal of the rally was to establish community at the local level to create change instead of waiting for Trump’s government for collaboration, and to send a message to the president that he is the most disliked president in U.S history.

One speaker announced to the crowd as a call to action: “We said Bernie or bust. No Bernie? It’s time we bust.” The crowd responded with shouts of: “Deport Trump.”

While a separate part of the coalition protesting next to the stage chanted, “No Trump. No Hate. No KKK. No Fascist, USA!” One man held an upside down American flag, which is the official symbol for distress, and could be seen as a better alternative to burning the flag because some people from all sides might find that disrespectful regardless of political preference.

The rally gave the amazing opportunity to let the nation see the diversity of people who are outraged at the election of President Trump. A number of protesters were interviewed to get different perspectives on the significance of the new presidency and what that means for America.

A local lab technician, Chris, who was there with his family said his wife urged him to bring the family to the rally because “it was important for the kids to see what is going on in history, and where Trump is taking the country.”

When asked what he would want the future generations to learn from events like this rally, he said, “The kids need to learn to fight for what they believe in like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X did.” (He asked that we would not post pictures of his family for privacy reasons.)

Another man, dressed as Spiderman, agreed to an interview. When asked for his real name all he said was to call him ‘Peter.’ Nice one spider guy.

As a superhero, what would you want people to take away from events such as this rally?

“I guess for people just to realize that you don’t have to stay seated when injustices happen. You can do something. You can get out in the streets and get out there for all the people who have been bigoted against. Everyone needs to get out to show those people that they are not alone.”

What would you recommend that people learn from everything that’s happened this past year?

“A. Would be to go out and vote. B. Would be that people should seek to understand each other more because a lot of this hate is bred from misunderstanding.” Thanks for the wise words spidey!

We ran into one of our rival Trojans, Ashley, at the rally and she also had some words for unity she wanted to share.

As a student, what advice could you go to other students to secure a brighter future?

“I think that in our respective positions, in whatever we our passionate about, we need to use that passion to enable others like I’m passionate about film. I’m filming this and I’m filming what everyone else is standing up for. I want to make a documentary for myself and for others that want to learn about the events of today. Our voices are all strong and that’s something.”

We were even lucky enough to interview a Trump supporter who crashed the rally by himself.

What’s your opinion on today’s events?

Before we started interviews he said, “Don’t ask stupid questions.” We simply responded that we wanted to hear his opinion. His response, “I think Donald Trump is a good businessman and at the end of the day America is run like a business. He was given a small loan of a million dollars. You may think like that’s a lot, but he turned that into an empire and that’s a hard venture. I’m sure it came with its failures, but he’s moved forward. I don’t agree with everything the republicans stand for like no abortions and women’s rights.”

“I showed up because I thought this rally would be violent like the ones you see on Youtube, but it looks like no one got hurt. I have no respect for the anti-trump protesters, but at the end of the day we are all one people and at the end of the day the government is run by money. At least Trump knows how to make money. Hillary was no good.”

During the interview he flexed his arm and said he was here to “make sure this was a safe rally.” After the interview he went off to debate more protesters.

Our interviews concluded with Katya and Amy, who came from Whittier to join the march and rally.

What motivated you to come out today and protest?

Katya said, “Personally I’m still in a stage trying to figure out what I can do to go about my political stance, so this is the first step for me. Getting out on the streets and meeting like-minded people, so I wanted to get out and experience that.”

Amy had a similar position, and was also motivated by personal experience. Amy said, ” Similar to Katya, this is the first time I’ve done something like this, but for me something that happened was that while at school my brother was told by other classmates not to, ‘speak illegal,’ since he was speaking Spanish. The fact that they thought it was okay to say something like that made me want to do something about it and that’s why I came out.”

What would you want people from your generation to take away from events like this?

Katya would want people of our generation to know that, “This may be something horrible that’s happening in our history, but know that you are not alone. Together we can pull through, and we will get through it because we are going to do something about it.”

Amy backed up Katya’s words by saying, “I hope that this motivates people to get up and do something because there is a lot of power in your voice and in educating others. ”

The theme of the rally was unity, and even the Trump supporter acknowledged, “we are all one people.” The voices of the community are strongest when they are united, and as a united group, a reoccurring chant heard through the streets of Los Angeles was “Fuck Trump.”

 

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