‘Patriots’ who are anything but that

Re “Threats way out west, too,” Jan. 10

The wrongheaded people talking violence in Shasta County fail to understand that democracy is not threatening elected officials with violence if you don’t get your way.

Politicians need only fear the ballot box or legal removal from office for malfeasance or incompetence. That’s how the founders whose flag they carry — or wear — wanted it.

One man in your article sported a shirt featuring the flag and the Lincoln Memorial. I think maybe he forgot that the man memorialized on his shirt, President Lincoln, died at the hands of a Confederate sympathizer who didn’t like his policies.

Anyone contemplating violence to settle political scores is not a patriot.

Pete Skacan Manhattan Beach

I am more alarmed than ever after reading that even when President Trump is out of office, he will remain in the minds and hearts of his followers, of which there are millions. It will be months if not years before our democracy and any sense of calm can be restored.

There is no justice if Trump is not held liable for all the damage he has caused. It is unfathomable to think that so many individuals believe that physical violence is the answer.

I fear for President-elect Joe Biden, Vice Presidentelect Kamala Harris and all those in government who are facing some of the most challenging problems of our times.

My fervent prayer is for a peaceful inauguration on Jan. 20, and I look forward to the day when the coronavirus, hatred and division are eradicated from this world.

Judy R. Martin Los Angeles

I suggest the people in Shasta County speaking supportively of violence go back and check out what happened on Sept. 11, 2001. Our nation still has troops engaged in the Middle East since to protect our democracy after that terrorist attack.

For their benefit, I will share the definition of terrorism with them: It is the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.

Do the people protesting our lawful election by engaging in intimidation and violence not understand that their behavior casts them as domestic terrorists? One cannot overstate how big a lie it is to claim the “election was stolen.”

To make it clear, the scoreboard reads 61-1. The Trump campaign has filed 62 court cases challenging the presidential election, and all but one failed. No judge, including some appointed by Trump, has found evidence of election fraud.

Greg Starczak Santa Barbara

So Marine veteran Carlos Zapata suggests that “we have to make politicians scared again” and, in reference to the riot Trump incited at the Capitol, “the most American thing they could have done is burn that f— down.”

I am a retired Army officer who also served in Iraq. I also was one of the first people on the ground during the invasion of Panama in 1989 when Zapata was in elementary school.

Unlike Zapata, I did not open a restaurant after I left the military. I became a high school teacher. I’m 57 and I guess that concepts like patriotism, loyalty, duty and love of country have changed since I was younger.

John Kirkland Oceanside