Alvin RiveraMarch 27, 2022, 5:00 AM·3 min readIn this article:

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• Donald Trump45th President of the United States

On a beautiful Colorado spring day, a friend and I were having lunch at a restaurant when a middle-aged man approached our table.

He said to me, “Thank you for your service,” after noticing I had on my 82nd Airborne Paratrooper hat. I thanked him, in return, for his comment.

Then, the man pointed to the Joe Biden pin on my sweatshirt and said, “Traitor!” He was gone in a flash and my friend and I looked at each other, stunned.

Perhaps I should not have been stunned by his abrupt parting comment. The nation has been locked in a war of words over political ideology since Donald Trump ran for president against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Many Americans have had similar hostile comments lobbed at them over what they're wearing, what they look like, even how they speak.

But who are the real traitors? Am I, a Mexican American military veteran who was having lunch with a friend? Is President Biden a traitor?

As you might expect, I think that, no, we are not. In my opinion, the traitors are those who stormed the nation’s Capitol on January 6, 2021, reportedly at former President Trump’s encouragement. In my opinion, the Capitol rioters intended to kill or do bodily harm to former Vice President Mike Pence, all Congressional officials and their staff. They intended to disrupt the democratic procedure of confirming our next, lawfully elected president. The traitors entered the Capitol illegally, caused the deaths of Capitol police, damaged property and sought to do harm to congressional leaders. They wanted to end our experiment in democracy by the people, for the people and with the people.

Former President Donald Trump is alleged to have encouraged the mob to storm the Capitol and failed to prevent or stop the action once our country's legislature was breached as lawmakers confirmed our next president. While the jury is out on these issues, the Select Committee set up to investigate the January 6th attack appears to be getting closer to an answer. If Trump is found to have done what I describe above, he, too, would be a traitor.

(editor：)