Stop attacking people not doing what you think they should be doing, Binghamton, NY protest [View all]

Went to my local protest. Several hundred people with signs on the sidewalk on a busy six lane road in front of the mall, and Wegmans. Stretched out for about 500 feet. A group of around ten people got it the turn lane and using a couple bullhorns yelled at the crowd. They made cars go around them to turn into the mall. They seemed to think we were not doing enough. However, I am not sure what they thought should be done. First of all, no one could not understand what they were saying. Traffic noise, the crowd spread out etc made it impossible to even understand and their bullhorn made whatever they said unintelligible. In short they were being jerks. Look at me! If you are not doing exactly what I think you should you are wrong.

I did engage a couple of them. I understand they are hurt, angry etc. So were the other several hundred people protesting. I told the, they were dividing people and that winning politics requires addition not subtraction. I asked how many times had someone being a jerk convinced them of anything? I still do not know what exactly they thought people should be doing. People left because of them. All they accomplished was making their allies made at them.

We are facing people who want and are willing to kill us. We cannot afford to do things that divide us. We have to welcome people who we disagree with on many issues. And insisting that others do exactly what we want is not helping. Rant over.