“She’s wearing asses!” he told the passer-by – the third or fourth such passer-by to receive the vulgar greeting, and physically intimidated his victim by poking his finger at her. “She’s got asses on her chest!”

The subject of the speaker’s provocation, an older woman attending Saturday’s rally  organized by moveon.org in favor of socialist healthcare, did not respond to the loud and vulgar man attempting to ridicule and provoke her. He eventually tired and went hunting someone else to annoy.

I spent most of Saturday’s event doing my very best to play the role of reporter – as much as I wanted to lend my voice to those supporting our cause, I remained silent and did my best to observe the events as dispassionately as possible from a neutral viewpoint. That is, after all, a reporter’s job.

But this, I couldn’t let go. I leaned over to the offended lady and her husband, offered my handshake in apology, and said: “Ma’am, I’m sorry about that. He does not represent us.”

I do not know whether or not the offensive gentleman in question was a member of our movement or not. I suspect not, since the primary message I heard him voicing loudly again and again was how much he hates Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, rather than offering any support for Texas nationalism.

But he is a bully, and I hate bullies. I always have, and always will.

We stand for a cause. It is a cause about which we are passionate. It is a cause for which most of us are ready to fight. 

But bullying and belittling those who hold different views accomplishes nothing – it’s cheap, it’s counter-productive, it lacks class… and it’s the favored tactic of our opposition. We don’t need to stoop to their level.

By doing so, we prove to our opposition and to outside observers that we are what they say we are—a bunch of uneducated rednecks who are full of hate.

The funny thing is, many of the people attending the pro-government-run healthcare rally which followed ours aren’t as far off in left field as many of us might think. To be true, the hard-core moveon.org organizers are completely lost in leftist la-la land, but many of their foot soldiers are simply unaware that there are alternatives. 

I conversed for several minutes with the lady and her husband, in a reasonable and polite tone. I learned why they support socialist health care: they’re scared. They fear their savings won’t be able to cover the medical costs they expect in the next few years. They’re afraid that our movement would eliminate the Social Security and other benefits they have earned over a productive lifetime.

I educated them, politely and reasonably. I explained our views, and pointed out why we oppose government-run anything, and invited them to contribute to our discussions at the texasnationalist.com website forums. We shook hands again, agreeing to disagee.

I hope they will take up my invitation, and I’m fairly sure that they left the event Saturday with a little different take on what we are all about.

We can rally all we want, march and protest and come up with great slogans—but bullying and intimidation won’t win us the support of our fellow Texans. 

The hand of friendship will.