Brad Rosenheim<p>Optimism: My dad, who was in the Navy, went to his first protest this Saturday (<a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/HandsOff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HandsOff</span></a> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/5051movement" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>5051movement</span></a>). He had been protested against when in Vietnam and never cared much for them. But he went, and I didn't ask him to come. He wanted to be involved. </p><p>Pessimism: After standing for an hour on the street corner, we were told by organizers that it was over. We had thousands on ~20 different street corners, but no one came together to march and make it a real protest. My dad asked, "Do you think it did anything?" My answer had to be no. Protests should not follow scripts or rules.</p>