It has now been nine days since the nation elected a new president. Donald Trump will be the 45th president of the United States.
It’s a decision that half the nation supports while the other half finds it difficult to fathom. With such divisiveness during the election, this should come as no surprise.
But what was a surprise were the number of “Not My President” protests in the days following the election. I watched as Americans across the country took to the streets to express their displeasure with the election’s results.
I don’t recall ever witnessing such a visceral response from so many people. Even my mother commented about it, saying she had never seen anything like it in her lifetime.
There were protests from New York to Los Angeles. Miami, Atlanta and Portland also were the sites of major protests.
Even in Boulder City there were reports of vandalism against those who supported the “opposite” candidate.
I could barely believe news accounts of Los Angelenos bringing traffic to a standstill on several of the city’s major freeways. It takes an awful lot to close an L.A. freeway.
According to one report, there were thousands of people in the downtown streets and at least 300 of those protesters spilled over onto the freeway, drawing a massive response from the Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol.
As a native Angeleno, I have seen hundreds of traffic jams and accidents that have left cars backed up for miles. But people protesting causing a shutdown? Not it my lifetime. About the only times I can think of when the city’s massive cement roadways were closed was after an earthquake, when there were literally chunks of the freeway missing, or when they were making major improvements and there were no other options.
Not since 1860 when Southern states began seceding from the Union has there been such a visible and vast protest to the election of a new president. By the time of Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven states had seceded, the Confederate States of America had been formally established, and Jefferson Davis was selected as its president.
Hopefully, this election will not cause another Civil War.
In both Trump’s victory speech after the election and Clinton’s concession speech the following day, there has been a call for unity and an end to the bitterness and nastiness that characterized this election.
“Now it is time for America to bind the wounds of division,” Trump said.
Clinton said we owe him the chance to be successful and to lead.
Those on opposite sides of the election should give their candidates continued support. It is time to follow their examples and put our dislikes and differences aside. We are, after all, citizens of the United States of America.
Hali Bernstein Saylor is editor of the Boulder City Review. She can be reached at hsaylor@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9523. Follow @HalisComment on Twitter.