One man on a corner

Right is right and wrong is wrong and sometimes courage can be lonely.

I was riding my bike down Moulton toward Crown Valley in Laguna Niguel yesterday, paying attention to nothing in particular, when I saw him.

The guy.

I pumped my fist in solidarity as I sped by, then stopped my Schwinn, planted my feet and turned back around. This, I thought, is pretty damn cool.

The man was all alone and dressed entirely in all black—black shoes, black jeans, black T-shirt, black mask. He held a large homemade white sign with a photo of Roger from “American Dad” and the words, I.C.E. CAN SUCK MY BALLS. As cars passed, he raised the sign aloft and pumped his other fist in a semi-Black Power salute. Some vehicles honked their support. Others did not. One douche brigade—a Mercedes driven by a youngish-looked bruh and his boys—sped past with a rolled-down window, and someone yelled out, “Faggot!”

I introduced myself, and the solo protester told me his name is Carlos. He’s a local guy. American-born, Latino, SoCal all the way, fed up by all the bullshit. And by “all the bullshit,” I mean the masked agents, the harassment of brown people, the cruelty, the ruthlessness, the Trump bellowing and bluster. He said he wore a mask because he feared Covid, but I suspect—if only just a little—he also feared America: 2025. In other words, a good chunk of us have become what the Republican Party desired—Nazi-like and mean-spirited and awful.

But, well, Carlos was undeterred. He stood alone because he thinks it’s important to stand—period. He held his sign and lathered in the honks and ignored the jerks. I spoke with him for a bit, and he was tremendous …

The moral: Don’t be fooled by what’s happening right now in our country.

Donald Trump is the president, but he is not the United States of America.

He is not liberty and freedom and justice.

Carlos is.