It was Laura—she still went by Laura, so I guessed that was her real name—who responded. “I get it.” There was a resignation in her voice. “We all get it. What are we going to do to stop these people? How do we take back our country? Believe me, I get it. We all get it, that’s why we’re here. Here’s the reality; we can’t do it with violence; trust me, like every one of you there have been times I get so angry I wish we could. But it’s insane. That’s what they want us to do. We’d be playing right into their hands. We have to fight them with ideas.”

Several people snickered. I heard a frustrated sigh. Then someone said softly, “Here we go again.”

Laura heard it too and whirled around. “Are you kidding me?” She was furious. “You think we have a choice? You see what’s out there? We have one weapon. One.” She shook her index finger. I have to admit, it was an impressive performance. “We have got to prove to Americans that Wrightman is lying to them. That he is spitting in their face. We have to confront them with it so they can’t pretend…”

Somebody shouted from the other side of the room, “That sure didn’t matter with Trump.”

Laura whirled to face the voice. “You’re right, and you saw the result of that. Just maybe people learned a lesson.” She turned slowly, speaking to the entire room as she continued, “Here’s one thing I guarantee you: if Patrick Henry was standing here today, right here in this classroom in the Michelle Obama Elementary School, and he demanded ‘Give me liberty or give me death,’ they’d disappear him. Big threats aren’t going to do anybody any good. We need to organize and take actions that make sense.”

She sat down moments later to a smattering of polite applause. A Maryland dairy farmer who called himself Chuck spoke next. He began by complimenting her, then said, “You know, I’ve been sitting here for a while, and until tonight I never said one word. I didn’t think I needed to, listening to smart people saying smart things. But here’s one thing I’ve figured out, years from now when people ask how this happened…” He shook his head. “Well, this is the beginning and I already hear people saying we should have stopped them yesterday. I gotta agree with that professor, I’ve had enough. I don’t know what I can do, but I want to do it.”

In response to Chuck the dairy farmer, Mike the dentist warned, “This is exactly what they want us to do, so they can crack down on us.”

It went on like that into the evening. I got their frustration, but while it makes great movies, the Bad News Bears are not going to beat the Yankees. As Mighty Chair was being lifted into Van, Laura’s words stuck in my head: We have to throw the truth in their face. For less than the instant it takes a neuron to jump a synapse I considered telling her what I had, but by the time it became a thought, I had already dismissed it.