I arrived at the protest, which was located at Michael Biehr Park in Venice, FL, at about 8:30 am. The protest, according to social media posts, was to start at 9 am and go on till 11 am. They were making their voices heard on many topics, including racial injustice, LGBT, gender justice, anti-fascism, and much more. Going to the protest is always a learning experience because I get to hear the points of view the media doesn't share. As we all know and can agree on (I hope) is the media lies and divides. Upon arrival, I walked around taking photos of the signs and videos of the protest. All the conversations were productive in every way I was hoping. The only issue I ran into was a woman who recognized me from a few years back at the Pride Festival on November 12th, 2022, located at Centennial Park in Venice, FL. While walking around and taking photos of the signs, this individual woman would follow me and interrupt every conversation I had with people. She would call me a "white Christian nationalist," "anti-gay," and more. This type of attitude and disruption is the root cause of why there is division between the two parties. Name-calling and accusing people of actions that never happened are why there is division. One was, she accused me of being a Proud Boy. This has never been the case in all my years of going to protests. Knowing members of the Proud Boys in order to get times and dates of protests that were taking place in Sarasota County and in the State of Florida is why I stayed in communication with them.

The one thing I noticed with talking to the demonstrators was that they have different views on Church and State. Should religion be involved in politics? If not, whose morals should be followed? This is something that gets brought up all the time, and this was the first protest where I spoke to three individuals who said that the state cannot promote a religion, but the politicians should be able to practice their faith while in office. To go even deeper, one individual said that the teachings of Christ are what they should follow. Now, this is controversial because many believe that the foundation of the government isn't rooted in Christianity. 

If the Constitution speaks of God alone, that would point to the fact that the Constitution is a religious set of rules. But now comes the question that no one wants to talk about. What religious belief was the Constitution based on when it was written? But that is a different topic.

The people at this protest only became hostile when the individual women would follow me and tell everyone that I am anti-gay and a Proud Boy. Just this alone caused many to then go from respect to disrespect. Many would then say they didn't want to talk because they have a false view of me.

What that woman did was spread slander and dirt on who I am and what I stand for as a believer in Christ. I never disrespected anyone at the event, called names, or even slandered someone's name. That is against my moral principles, and I hold myself accountable to that every day. Rumors and slander are a sin to God, and they bear false witness. This makes you a liar and untrustworthy as a person made in the image of God.