(August 19, 2017)
"Thousands Take to Streets in Boston"
"I'm an elder. It's my job to bring wisdom to the youth."
~~ Boston Police Chief William Gross
"I hope we're going to have stability. the President is going to learn from these episodes, and we're going to do better."
~~ Ohio Governor John Kasich
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"Protesters Flood Streets, and Trump offers a measure of praise" was the New York Times article about Saturday's demonstrations in Boston.
A presidential tweet was mentioned, and several readers commented that it was "hollow" -- Mr. Sullivan in California wrote, "I do not believe the president tweeted this" -- Patricia in Pasadena wrote, "Ivanka must have taken over his Twitter feed"...
> > > 3 Reader Comments
ML Boston
----------- We did sing "We shall overcome" while marching in Boston today. And we sang "This Land Is Your Land" and "Never Turning Back." There was a honk band that played, tubas, kids, people dancing, trying to be joyful and unifying in the face of hatred.
As I noted in an earlier comment, there were people who behaved badly, and throwing bottles and rocks at a police force keeping the peace is wrong, no two ways about it. Early in the march we ran into the police commissioner in Roxbury, who spoke with and posed for a couple of photos with marchers.
That was the mood the vast majority of the march -- cooperation, tolerance, hope. There is more bad behavior and arrests in Boston after one of our sports teams wins a major game. You can't control every person in a crowd of 40,000.
I also just have to say -- it struck me today that the people we call "the greatest generation" -- my grandparents -- were antifascists who fought the Nazis. Being against Nazis and white supremacists has never been "left" or "liberal" in this country. It's been unquestioned. When did that change? Today in Boston, we said, that hasn't changed.
Edwin Hurwitz
----------------- "Matt Staley interjected to ask if those demonstrating in support of free speech were not Americans, too. 'I think it's awful that people can't speak out to express opinions,' Mr. Staley said."
What is he talking about? They can speak out. They had the government (which most of them seem to hate) protecting their ability to do so.
They should just expect a spoken response.
That's how the marketplace of ideas is supposed to work.
Is he saying that the counter-protesters should have had their voices shut down?
I think that a large contingent of the right wing doesn't understand how constitutionally protected free speech works.
I'm proud of my hometown. We've come a long way since 1974.
Nora M New England
----------- Ah, I could have told the alt-righters that Boston wasn't their kind of town. A city that went through the Boston massacre and continued to rebel anyway has never been easily intimidated.
After the Boston Marathon bombing, people ran back into the crowd to tend to the wounded, not away from it.
They don't strut like the Texans, but they don't need to. They are made of stronger stuff.
Well done, Boston!
______________________
...Been alerted to an interesting anti-extremist tactic -- in 2014, residents of the small German town of Wunsiedel had a new and different response to the annual neo-Nazi march that has been taking place there for decades.
Local businesses and residents donated money to "sponsor" the neo-Nazi marchers, and funds raised were donated to a nongovernmental organization that fights extremism. The further the neo-Nazis marched, the more money was raised for their opponents. An "involuntary walkathon," the CNBC article called it.
--------------- The Guardian had a report about this at the time -- to read it online, type in headline, "German town tricks neo-Nazis into raising thousands of euros for anti-extremist charity"...
Over 300 Comments on the story, which quickly branch out into a fight (no, exchange of ideas) about whether Germans have any sense of humor or not....
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