From Staff Reports

HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. — That woman (Leslie Boyd) who got herself banned from Congressman Chuck Edwards’ six McDonald’s restaurants doesn’t know the first thing about the art of protest.

If she did, she never would have dressed like she and her gang of protesters were competing in a grunge contest.

Nor would she have marched around the inside of the McDonald’s restaurant (on Spartanburg High in Hendersonville on March 8), clashing cymbals to the tune of “When the Saints Come Marching In,” played by a dorky Asheville band.

When you protest on behalf of dignified things, like federal food and health programs, and immigration protection, you should dress and behave in an equally dignified manner because if you look bad, then they look bad.

This is why Martin Luther King Jr. either wore a suit – to show respect and dignity for black civil rights — or else MLK wore work clothes to show solidarity with the poor.

Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t dress (for a protest) like he was at Disney World!

Which is not to say you can’t dress in grunge style during a protest.

The 1960 anti-war protesters could be described as dressing “grungy.”

So could Cesar Chavez and his Mexican farmworker protesters.