This is what I am talking about:
"Michael Rose, 27, a bespectacled medical student from Brooklyn, approached the opponents of the mosque around noontime with a handwritten sign, reading “religious tolerance is what makes America great.” He was immediately surrounded by protestors, some of whom angrily pointed a finger in his face. One man, his face red, leaned in to Mr. Rose and hissed, “If the cops weren’t here, you’d be bleeding right now.”
A group of police officers quickly moved in, pushing Mr. Rose away from the crowd and angrily insisting he return to the designated area for supporters of the mosque. Later, Mr. Rose said he had wanted to “get a better sense of what the protesters were saying, or thinking.”
Was he surprised by their message? Mr. Rose shook his head. “There was nothing that Newt Gingrich isn’t saying,” he said.
Just then, the red-faced man who had threatened Mr. Rose reappeared. He had followed the medical student a block from the protest. He stuck out a hand and, in a terse voice, said: “I’m sorry.”
“You have a right,” the man continued. (He would not give his name.) “I am sorry for what I said to you. I disagree with you completely, but you have a right.”"
nytimes.com |
