Sonoma County residents share stunned reactions to this year’s presidential election

What just happened, and what comes next?

In the wake of last week’s presidential election, people throughout Sonoma County and the nation have been asking themselves those questions. Whether applauding Donald Trump’s astounding victory or grieving Hillary Clinton’s loss, many have banded together to process their feelings and envision the future.

We asked Sonoma County residents to share their thoughts and Facebook posts, and got responses that ranged from despair, anger, joy and shame to a renewed faith in the power of personal action as they adjust to challenging, tumultuous times.

Many echoed this message from Clinton’s concession speech: “The American dream is big enough for everyone. We need to keep doing our part to build a better, stronger America.”

Norma Smith Davis, 79, on Facebook - “It’s really hard to go about my business from the fetal position today. Difficult to explain what happened with my thumb in my mouth. I would stay in bed all day, but I don’t have enough comfort food and booze.”

Harriet Redlich, Petaluma architect - “I planned to post a Facebook comment after the election, saying how much my mother would enjoy knowing we had a female president. Women have only been able to vote since 1920, and she belonged to the League of Women Voters since the year it was founded. She was 30, which means she must have been a suffragette.

“Instead, I woke up to Kristallnacht in Oakland, and to learn that the voters picked a potty-mouthed, ignorant hothead to sit in the Oval Office, with his trigger finger near that red button. Maybe he’ll change: donate 3 or 4 billion to charity, enroll in courses in history, geography and anger management...”

Edward Gathercole, SRJC student and Trump supporter - “The archaic system is exposed. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

“Throughout history we know that politicians will say whatever they need to get elected. Don’t get caught up in political rhetoric, seek the subtlety between the lines. Trump is top dog at marketing manipulation. He’s exposed racism and misogyny that up until its exposure was denied in society.

“Lots of emotional arguments are being made. Lots of fear, tears and serious emotions. We need good people who can argue both sides. We need unity. Very few Trump supporters are in the position to bridge the gap between the ignorance and unity; I accept that challenge, the challenge of human unity.”

Mia Al Mutawa, 18, who helped organized the Nov. 10 Anti-Bigotry Protest at SRJC - “This isn’t just a Trump Problem. The problem is that people are ignoring the environment. People are criminalizing people who should not be criminalized. As a trans-queer person and someone who is inherently Muslim, it’s concerning to me, but I also realize that there are so many more people who are in danger.”

Caroline and Peter Broberg, who brought their two young daughters to the protest - “A big part of why we’re out here is because we have two girls. This is a scary age to be a woman in.”

Timmy Lodhi, 25, whose family immigrated from Pakistan 35 years ago - “I’m kind of terrified” about Donald Trump’s campaign promise to require all Muslims in the U.S. register. “I’m a first generation American, but since the rhetoric of Donald Trump and this whole Muslim thing, it’s been a total joke and a nightmare at the same time. I truly believe that the majority of this country does not want what’s going on. It’s just a matter of getting everyone together and showing that.”

Valerie Travers, Press Democrat reader - “How do I feel? Ashamed. For years a large group of Americans have shouted about feeling disenfranchised. Social and economic progress they didn’t agree with, working three jobs for scraps, complaining about the moral decay in our society. And we laughed at them from our ivory towers and called them simple and backward while we were enlightened and progressive.

“We scoffed at them for not respecting people of color and women, while we showed them no respect. Whether they deserved the respect or not, when a group of people get tired of being looked down upon and are struggling to pay their bills, they will revolt. And they did.

“Donald Trump is not the hero we need, but he might be the hero we deserve.”

Adilenne Rosas, 27, graduate of Cali Calmecac Spanish-language immersion school in Windsor, which was tagged during the campaign with racist messages and references to Donald Trump.

“Little 5-year-olds know what’s happening, and that’s sad because they shouldn’t be exposed to that. It takes away from their childhood. I’m not entirely afraid of (Trump) being president but of the people who support him and what they’re capable of.”

Nancy Korbet, 57, Santa Rosa life coach - “I just couldn’t understand why people would vote for someone who comes from the fear place and is noninclusive, no matter how fed up they were.” Despite her feelings, she opted to search for optimism and refuses to let anger consumer her.

“I realized I wanted to stay in the light because what is done, is done. Many people are going down the rabbit hole and feeding into that fear and hatred, and that’s not what our country needs. It’s not a one-man show. (Trump) is not going to be a dictator. It’s not how our system works.

“(Instead), channel fear and anger into something constructive, especially in these early days, even if this means being kind to someone in your community, as simple as doing a kind act. I love what Michele Obama said: ‘When they go low, we go high.’ That’s where we need to stay.”

Molly Murphy MacGregor, Santa Rosa, founder of Sonoma County Women’s History Week and the National Women’s History Project - “I was absolutely stunned and surprised. And immediately I tried to figure out where do we go from here. If this many people voted for Donald Trump, if they believed some of the lies written about her, then obviously they don’t know who Hillary Clinton is.

“What I’m trying to do is take heart from the women who have preceded me, the women who have had a hell of a lot worse opposition than I have faced - black women who saw their sons taken out and lynched, and yet continued to move forward.

“I plan to move forward with as much positive, embracing energy as I can and absolutely engage people who see it differently. Because I need to know how they see it differently.”

Roy Gattinella, Santa Rosa Junior College business professor and department chair - Gattinella threw an election night party to celebrate the end of Donald Trump, serving Nasty Woman cocktails and a Trump roast along with Trumpette mushrooms.

“We just got so tired of hearing that man and the hate, and this was the last time we were going to see him. But our party turned into the worst party ever.”

The election result produced a helplessness he had not felt since 9/11, and Gattinella and his wife plan to boycott TV news. “(Trump’s) approach is bullying, manipulative and inaccurate, and I can’t take it. I don’t want to see or listen to that man in my home.”

But facing his students the next day turned out to be good therapy, as together they analyzed the election and used it as a learning moment. It allowed him to view the election more objectively, and the students’ undaunted optimism for the future helped buoy his spirits.

“They were really smart in assessing that this guy (Trump) is using old-school sales tactics from the ‘40s, when it was OK to flat out lie. And yet they worked because we are a divided country.

“Even though they were all shocked and depressed, (they have) an enormous amount of hope. Their expectation is that the next leader will come not from the two parties, but a new voice from a party that doesn’t even exist yet.”

Arlene Miller, Petaluma, retired teacher and “The Grammar Diva” - Even during the Bush years, when Democrats found themselves at a perpetual slow boil, Miller remained calm. But she has always been offended by Donald Trump’s overt bullying and meanness, so deeply that she was compelled to volunteer at Hillary headquarters in Petaluma. Over the weekend, she worked the front desk, checking in more than 200 ebullient volunteers who worked the phones. But by Tuesday night, the mood had turned somber.

“People were holding out hope. Eventually, they were leaving. People were crying. It was just so shocking,” an ending that is painfully familiar to too many women. “Such a qualified woman still gets passed over for a job by a completely unqualified man. What makes me angry are the decades of lies about Hillary ... by this man who has no soul and no heart.”

Miller, 65, spent Wednesday morning on her phone, coping with her rage and talking friends off the ledge. In the afternoon joined others at headquarters to cry, hug and make plans to remain politically committed and vigilant.

“Taking action has helped a lot of people, doing something constructive. I can’t do it because I don’t know what’s going to happen. But if Roe v Wade is overturned, I’m going to be the first out in the street.”

In the short run, she is shutting out the news, turning off TV shows and radio shows. “I’m going to have a new blackout. I can’t look at him or his family.”

Shirlee Zane, Sonoma County Supervisor - Zane experienced shock, sadness and grief when she learned the outcome of the election.

“There was a lot of excitement that we were finally going to have a woman in the White House after more than 200 years. It’s about representation. I wanted Hillary to be there for me and for all the other women in office, but also my daughters and all those little girls out there.”

For those experiencing sadness and grief, Zane said it’s important to let people feel the emotions.

“Listen empathetically. Don’t try and fix it, because the grief that this country could be headed in a scary direction is real. Grief is like a lake - you can’t go around it to get to the other side, you have to swim through it.

“It behooves (the country’s leaders) to listen. We’re still a democracy, and we’re going to work toward the greater good.”

Mary Murray Shelton, Santa Rosa, ordained minister with the Centers for Spiritual Living - Shelton watched the election returns from a hotel in Kauai, with her spouse and some friends. Instead of celebrating the country’s first female president, they were stunned by what actually happened.

“It has taken us a couple days to regroup and get some grounding underneath us,” said Shelton, who traveled to Iowa to support Clinton during the primary campaign. “But my feeling is that people are called now to make change happen, and to take care of one another, and to look to those who are most vulnerable and make sure that we stand with them and do the work we can, to not just be on the sidelines and observing but to actually participate.”

Moving forward, Shelton hopes the country’s citizens can learn to fear one another less and be more willing to listen to and understand other points of view.

“I don’t know how well we will do if we’re just going to sit around and feel sorry for ourselves or feel triumphant,” Shelton said. “Either way, I don’t think that moves us forward. I think we need to do more.”

Shelton plans to reach out to a Muslim friend in the East Bay and “let her know I stand with her in this.”

Gina Riner, 60, of Healdsburg - The toxic presidential race left Riner feeling an incredible sense of sadness Tuesday night and has inspired her to become more civically involved.

“It’s a sinking feeling. Like the clock has turned back 50 years. I’m devastated that somebody who has said so many immoral things, who uses bankruptcy as a strategy, who puts out all those bullying tweets, has been elected.”

Riner said she now feels a duty to become more involved in politics.

“It’s time to start working. Go to a city council meeting. Stand up for people and be more compassionate and caring. If there is bullying going on verbally, I won’t be quiet like I was before. Before I’d be nervous and be quiet. But I don’t want to be stay silent anymore.”

Reb Irwin Keller of Congregation Ner Shalom in Cotati - About 65 members of his congregation gathered Wednesday night to process their feelings about Trump’s victory and the dark rhetoric he used in the campaign. Trump’s words resonated with Jews in a particularly dark way, he said.

“In the past, it has moved from rhetoric to action, and it makes us as a community all the more committed to making sure that everyone of every gender and every religion is safe in this country,” Keller said. Keller described the Wednesday gathering as a kind of mourning process for many members of his congregation who, because of the election results, lost faith in the goodwill of the American people, the political process and “the linearity of progress.”

At the same time, the congregation reminded itself of the ties that bind them together and the values they stand for, offering blessings for the country, president-elect Trump, Hillary Clinton, President Obama and people overseas.

Keller anticipated the election results, and said ensuing developments in the public sphere will be part of each of his sermons for the foreseeable future. And he left no doubt about how he viewed the stakes of a Trump presidency. “It’s no secret that Donald Trump’s rhetoric looked a lot like the rhetoric that was articulated 70 years ago in Germany,” he said.

“What that demands of Jews is to make sure that we respond in the way we wish others had responded back then. ... Speaking out, standing up for people who are persecuted - it’s going to be important for everyone in the community to speak up over the coming four years.”

Pastor Matthew Pearson, Sonoma United Methodist Church - Pearson said his inclusive and progressive congregation will remain committed to the needs of the most vulnerable community members, regardless of the country’s fractured state in the wake of Tuesday’s election.

“It was interesting for me, as an individual, to see how really divided the country is and how our two-party system has really pitted us against one another. The work of the church is to not allow these political systems to divide us or to cause us to ignore the sacred work in all of humanity.”

Pearson, who is openly gay, said he had not yet finished his next sermon, but he planned to invoke the story of Chicken Little when addressing his congregation. “The sky seems to be falling. But the reality is, God is bigger than this moment.”

Diane Peterson, Meg McConahey, Peg Melnik, Derek Moore, JD Morris, Angela Hart, Crissi Langwell and Estefany Gonzalez contributed to this report.