Lady Liberty will have her victory over Donald Trump in this editorial cartoon by Rob Sheridan. Photo: Rob Sheridan.
What do you plan to be doing while Donald J. Trump is being inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America?
“My plan for Friday is to not be watching Donald Trump being sworn in as President of the United States,” said Herlinda Chico, for whom not turning on the television to watch America extend its perfect record of peaceful transfers of power is a struggle against her very nature.
Herlinda Chico, Long Beach and Signal Hill field deputy with Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, will not watch Donald Trump’s inauguration. Photo: Courtesy of Herlinda Chico.
Chico, who recently joined Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s staff as field deputy in Long Beach and Signal Hill, has a fascination with public service in all its manifestations, from volunteerism to grass-roots activism to elected office. Over the past two decades, Chico has sampled all of it — or tried to; her 2015 run as a candidate for 4th District on the Long Beach City Council was unsuccessful.
Her resume ranges from legislative and public information positions with multiple cities, mentoring young women who have been aged out of the foster care system to leadership positions with the Democratic Women’s Study Club of Long Beach and Long Beach Lambda Democratic Club.
But Friday’s inauguration feels completely different than eight years ago, when the election of the United States’ first black president made people feel pride, enthusiasm, important and like watching the inauguration in morning breakfast parties all over town.
“I’m not going to support watching this president,” Chico said. “I have my issues with him. I plan to go to the gym and work out really hard with like-minded friends. And then I’m going to work, all day.”
