Revolutionaries sometimes decide it's best to keep a low profile.

One of those times occurred Tuesday morning at Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin's State of Downtown address.

The event at the Bankers Ballroom in the Pacific Southwest Building on Fulton Mall was hosted by PBID Partners of Downtown Fresno. That is downtown's new business improvement district.

I showed up at 7:50, after the capacity crowd had started breakfast. I counted 10 protestors milling around in front of the ballroom entrance. They said the city is terrible to the homeless.

Politics in Fresno has changed a lot in the year since Swearengin's previous State of Downtown address. A coordinated effort is afoot to de-legitimize every attempt by City Hall and legions of virtuous community citizens to help the homeless. The end-game of this effort can only be to destabilize local government.

There were only a few empty seats in the rear of the ballroom. I took one near the south wall.

A few yards to my left, enjoying breakfast, was Patch. He is the public face of the Occupy Fresno protest at Courthouse Park.

I looked to my left a minute or so after Swearengin began speaking. There was Patch, standing in ballroom's center aisle, his right arm raised high in the air. He held a paper in his right hand.

Patch wasn't saying anything. But neither would he sit down, even after a PBID employee spoke softly to him.

I turned back toward Swearengin, took a few notes, then again looked to my left. Patch was still standing there, arm high in the air, and the PBID employee was still talking to him.

No one sitting in the back of the ballroom could miss Patch. What would he do next? Swearengin gave no hint that she noticed him.

I took a few more notes on Swearengin's speech, then looked again to my left. Patch was gone. Well, he was no longer standing. He had returned to his table behind me. He appeared to be paying attention to Swearengin's every word.

And standing a few feet behind Patch was Dan Doyle, president/chief executive of Central Valley Community Bank and a PBID board member. In the world of Occupy Wall Street/Occupy Fresno, bankers are the devil himself.

That would make my paternal grandfather even worse than the devil. My grandfather was in charge of one of Lindsay's two banks on Oct. 24, 1929 -- Black Thursday.

I like bankers.

Doyle was doing nothing other than politely listening to Swearengin. But his dignified presence sent a clear message to anyone sitting in that part of the ballroom: Good manners will prevail.

I took a few more notes, then looked toward Patch's table. Doyle was gone. But in his place stood Rich Caglia, also calmly listening to Swearengin.

The Caglia family has been a loyal advocate for downtown for a century. Caglia has shoulders nearly as wide as the ballroom. Those shoulders said: Good manners will prevail.

Swearengin finished her speech in peace. People applauded, then went to work. The American experiment in self-government counted another success.

And as everyone streamed out of the ballroom, that gracious, dedicated, kind-hearted, tactful employee of PBID Partners of Downtown Fresno returned to Patch and his coffee to see how she could help him.