Editor:

As it says in the Bible and was sung by the Byrds, "To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven." America has experienced times before when we couldn't just "agree to disagree," times when we had to fight it out ("Tribalism and Polarization," June 28). Remember slavery. Remember the demonstrations of the 1960s that birthed civil rights, feminism and ended the Vietnam War. Remember Act Up and the AIDS crises. Like those times, this is not the time to get along, to be as Martin Luther King said, "the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice."

If you believe as I do that Trump could be another Hitler and/or the end of our democracy, then making his administration's officials uncomfortable over dinner is not the end of the world. Would you be upset to learn that Goebbels got turned away from his favorite eatery? Trump has already said he'd like to be president for life. He has taken children from parents for a misdemeanor offence that has a lower fine than littering. What other evidence do we need that what we think is happening to our country is happening?

This is a time to rise up, to vote and to keep our opposition alive when we are not voting. It is a time of struggle, dissent, discomfort, and yes, occasional rudeness in restaurants.

Lynne Abels, Arcata