Parades can be a bit chaotic, especially at the start. On Dot Day, there’s always a scrum at the ribbon-cutting in front of St. Greg’s with politicians angling to get into the money shot. And there’s a swarm of cameras with pro journalists and amateurs jockeying for position to capture the scene.

But this year brought extra, unnecessary stress to the situation in the form of the anti-vaccine, anti-mask crazies who insist on harassing and haranguing Mayor Wu at every public step she takes across the city. Unfortunately, on Sunday, that included the long 3.2-mile trek up the avenue. As her young son scooted along in close proximity, the mayor gamely kept it moving, smiling and waving as the nut-jobs banged their kettle drum and chanted their shameful slogans.

What was the experience like for parade-goers, most of whom had settled into a shady spot on the sidewalk or along a front stoop or park ledge to watch the world pass by along the avenue?

First, it was a chance to see —up close— the pack of sad sacks who are so obsessed with hating the city’s mayor that they rise before the dawn to descend upon her home and, yes, stalk her daily, wherever her daily schedule might bring her across Boston.

They are pathetic, and seeing them in action really underscored that reality. To a battle of wits and class, they come unarmed.

The other prevalent takeaway: Hurrah for Mayor Wu. No chief executive in this city’s history has ever had to put up with such a sustained campaign of lunacy and deranged behavior directed at them without check. It’s an onslaught of stupidity and toxicity— all of it unleashed on her personally, and by association, on her family.

It’s easy for those of us unaffected by the daily encounters with mind-numbing idiocy to wave off this senselessness as just another pitfall of public life. But how exhausting and demoralizing must it be to step out each day to make a good-faith effort to serve the citizenry of Boston only to have a dozen real-life bozos blustering in your face?

Our mayor won a big victory on Sunday by showing this entire neighborhood just how unfazed she is by the racket and the ratchetness that besets her constantly. For lucky spectators like us on Sunday, the clowns passed us by in a few moments. She had to put up with their foolishness all the way to Columbia Road. Boston, your mayor is a tough, determined, good-humored, and resilient woman. Dorchester people have famously appreciated those qualities in their neighbors and in their leaders. On Dot Day, the crazies may have thought they proved some point. They did: Michelle Wu is a real one and we’re proud to call her our mayor.