I was wrong about the march

When I first heard of a counter protest.. a "fight supremacy" I thought that such a thing would only draw more attention and give more if a platform to that hate group. But then I saw some of my friends who I feel connected to not only through ideals, but also yi hei, were going. And I felt that even if it was a bad idea I had to go....

But then there was the added problem of logistics. I was leaving for Connecticut the same day and showing the house to be renters. In the end, I could not go.

Seeing all the pictures on. Twitter of my friends from various groups and seeing that mostly it became a celebration of diversity, showed me I had been wrong. Granted I did not agree with all chants and there was some urine throwing, but this was as small as that hate group.

What happened, is that a despicable ideology made us realize how much we care about each other.


Let me put it this way.

I hear that my grandfather was pretty racist.


But he also fought at the battle of the bulge and was there for the liberation of some of the camps. He gave some food to a starving man, and then saw him die after eating it too fast. That memory does not go away.

He also had a black friend.... but my mother said she had told him when it came down to a black friend choosing between his people and you, he would have to choose his people and that you can't blame him for that. (This was not the 60's this was BEFORE the 60's)

All I'm saying that when kids today just start pointing fingers and saying, "racist" especially the white kids... it's more complicated than that.

My grandfather would spout racist comments and then slowly, as one son married a Jewish woman, and then his daughter married  a Chinese man, and the family started to even look different, well what can you do but go with it?


Boston has a lot of problems with race.

No doubt.

But most people will realize that they love the people of different races. Becasue they in one way or another part of their family. Whether through blood, sports, work, or economy... despite whatever political or cultural difference they may have with someone of another color...  they love each other more than they can tolerate racism.

 Conscious or subconscious bias and prejudice, they will be able to set that aside when it comes down to it. Especially when the alternative is siding with Nazi ideaology.

Now I will say I saw one drawback to the March. DSNI held a multi cultural festival on the same day that had little turn out. In truth, it would have been possible to have both and it would have been nice for Dudley Square to get some of that economic support from the 40k in the march.

But hopefully the general take away is that we will do better in the future.

I had been sad that the day that I left my home city was going to be a day of a demo that was going to be like Charlottesville, a tragedy. But instead u saw a Boston of all colors (on Twitter, on the train) filled with friends of many stripes whi came together to show love.