Protesters again take to uptown streets (of Charlotte)

[davidthegnome]

31. I am not arguing that they should not protest.

I did not - and will not dispute that they have that right, of course they do.

If that was the best time that they could find for everyone (except for whatever potential people may have joined them had they not been watching the convention...) then that was the best time for them, fair enough. I would not ask them to choose a time more convenient for me.

Instead, I would suggest that a protest of 70 people - at any time - is unlikely to garner significant support or sympathy from politicians, the public or the media. It may well have earned this report precisely because of the staging time, but with such few members, no one from the President to a young punk like me is going to take them very seriously. Are they really trying to get him to come out and speak? For a million people, perhaps he would have. For seventy... he's the President, there were millions of people watching the Convention live.. I believe his priorities are in proper order.

1968 is well before my time, but from what I do know of that history, there was passion... logic... and a large number of people prepared to challenge and sacrifice for their goals. This strikes me as something very different.

If they are actually hoping to accomplish something... there are better methods for doing so. If I gathered a small group of fellow students and protested outside a government or corporate building, they would sneer and laugh up their sleeves. If I gathered a large number, they'd start getting nervous, enough, perhaps, to confront us or at least acknowledge the issue.

It's not a matter of being unwelcome, it's a matter of being, ultimately, insignificant.