Guest Post: Brandon Tonner-Connolly and A Mostly Peaceful Protest

A NYC production designer marches for Palestine, transcending "the unstated rule that to go beyond a certain level of questioning is to identify yourself as very fringe and a borderline hate-monger."

When it comes to our views on the carnage in Israel and Palestine, most of us are captive to our chosen news feeds, programmed as they are not to deescalate the rhetoric but to whip up horror at what the "other side" is doing. I certainly am. Maybe you are too.

In an effort to look past today’s enraging video or questionable meme, I will occasionally be turning over my Substack to people who have differing points of view and experiences.

Today’s essay comes from Brandon Tonner-Connolly, a production designer for film and TV whose credits include the series “Reservation Dogs,” on which my daughter also worked. When I learned Tonner-Connolly, 39, attended the pro-Palestine protest in Washington DC on November 4, I asked him to write up his experience.

This is the first in a series. Next up we hear from a Harvard student whose early interest in progressive ideology was fully torpedoed after October 7.

The Conflict at Home: Brandon Tonner-Connolly and a Mostly Peaceful Protest

I went to D.C. because it feels like a unique, especially urgent moment in a multi-generational crisis.