Post-election activists get louder in county

Feb. 04--The woman in the cat hat made of pink fleece wore a button carrying an obscenity pointed at the NRA.

Her protest sign, triggered by Donald Trump's hot mic comment 12 years ago about women's genitals, carries another unprintable word.

Kerry Mellin, a television costumer who also makes EazyHold gripping devices for children with cerebral palsy, marched with more than 100 people Wednesday night in a chant-driven circle around Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Knight's Simi Valley office. Nearly two weeks earlier, she had worn her fleece hat and handed out others at a downtown Los Angeles march that drew as many as 750,000 people.

She's just getting started.

"This has brought out a bear in me," she said of Trump's presidency, "something I didn't know I had within me. We are not silent anymore."

In fact, they are loud and they are everywhere.

Nearly 200 people gathered Sunday in a Newbury Park Hindu temple -- it was used because the crowd was too big for an organizer's home -- to plan their strategy in wake of Trump taking office. Some drove directly from Los Angeles International Airport, where they had been chanting about restrictions placed on refugees and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries.

On Friday, two days after a Simi march that was peaceful but still drew police, Bernie Sanders supporters and others planned to gather at a Ventura street corner and protest planned changes in health care coverage. Two days after that, a different group will gather outside a Newbury Park mosque to show their support for the Muslim community.

Some people focus on phone calls and letters. Staff members for Knight and Democratic Rep. Julia Brownley said messages to their offices are up.

"I have heard from thousands of constituents in recent weeks, more than ever before," said Brownley, first elected in 2012.

To some, the surge in activism seems nearly unprecedented.

Dr. Robert Dodge, a Ventura family physician, leads the nation's largest chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility in Los Angeles. As part of a lifetime of activism, he led marches in downtown Ventura before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a peace sign.

"This is much, much bigger," he said of the current surge. "I don't think we've seen this amount of activism since the Vietnam War."

The number of protests does seem unusual, said Keith Mashburn, a Republican and a member of the Simi Valley City Council. He thinks the energy may be misdirected.

"I didn't vote for Obama, but when he was elected president, he was elected my president and I felt a good patriot would support him," he said, contending that opponents of Trump should act similarly. "It's for the citizens to unify in support of the new president. That's why I don't feel too supportive of anyone who is protesting right now."

There are many players. A newly formed group called Justice For All organized a Ventura justice march the day after Trump's inauguration that drew maybe 2,500 people. The Simi Valley Democratic Club organized the Wednesday rally aimed at Knight's record of voting against the Affordable Care Act. A group called Ventura County Activists for Bernie Sanders helped organize the Friday health care rally in Ventura.

Additional groups are popping up across the county in a movement sparked by former congressional staffers who posted a strategy called "Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda." It snowballed. More than 4,500 groups have signed up across the nation.

Leaders say their goal is to build a grassroots movement that takes a page from the right.

"Our goal is to have the same sort of impact on our legislators that the Tea Party has had," said Jon Cummings, suggesting that the tone of that message may be different from the complaints delivered by conservatives at the town hall meetings before the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Cummings is one of the local leaders of Indivisible: Conejo. Almost 200 people attended the group's organizing meeting, forming small groups that will lead efforts on immigration, reproductive rights, religious discrimination and other issues.

They're propelled by Trump's election and his proposals. Their focus is on local, state and federal leaders, including Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The message to her is to oppose Trump's Cabinet appointees.

"We're suggesting she's consenting too much," Cummings said.

The Rev. Rob McCoy leads a Newbury Park church, ran as a Republican candidate for state Assembly and serves on the Thousand Oaks City Council. He is one of the local politicians, Cummings said, who Indivisible will "monitor" on issues including separation of church and state.

McCoy said he has no issues with being on the group's radar screen.

"Let's have a dialogue on church and state," he said in an invitation Cummings said his group would accept.

"We want to have those interactions with public officials and try to convince them to vote the way we want," Cummings said.

Protesting is an effective way of sending a message, but there is a line, McCoy said, citing demonstrators in Berkeley who threw smoke bombs and broke windows in protest of a planned speech by a polarizing Breitbart News editor.

"Obstruction and any kind of destruction to public property and violence is not healthy for any cause," McCoy said, later pushing for unity. "We have to get out from behind our barricades and start building some bridges."

Activists draw comparisons between the movement triggered by Trump's presidency and Vietnam War protests. Others point at immigration reform movements, Occupy Wall Street and demonstrations aimed at the invasion of Iraq.

Some people contend the current surge of pink hats and "No Wall" protest signs is different because many are worn and carried by people new to activism.

"They've gone from no political involvement to, 'I'm going to organize a rally,'" said Maricela Morales, executive director of Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy. "That's pretty incredible, to go from 0 to 60."

Kathy Nezhni, a retired judicial assistant from Simi Valley, marched in protests in the Vietnam War era but hadn't since then. Until now.

Her anger over the election is an amplifier that makes her voice climb as she unleashes a list of frustrations: Trump's unreleased tax returns, dealings with Russia, climate change and the possibility of war.

"I could sit here for an hour," she said, contending that people need to respond. That's why she'll be back outside Knight's office for the next march.

"As Democrats, we just roll over, and I'm sick of it," she said.

___

(c)2017 Ventura County Star (Camarillo, Calif.)

Visit Ventura County Star (Camarillo, Calif.) at www.vcstar.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.