That is Exactly the point! It all depends on WHERE you do your educating, and how.

Taking a snake out wrapped around your neck like some Rambo butch guy (which, incidentally, is just what the idiot upstairs used to do with the normal female I rescued from him) to the grocery store or liquor store (that's where he took her), is VERY irresponsible and gives our great hobby a worse image. Not to mention it is potentially dangerous for the snake (diseases, irrational people...)

Going to a pet store, where you are known and accepted, or some other location that focuses on animals and sitting off where people can come or not to their choosing is the RIGHT way to take these animals into the public. The more people we have doing it the right way, the more receptive people we can cure of ignorance.
Yes, there will always be rude crude morons out there, which is a main reason for keeping your animals near you and in your sight at ALL times while out. But the goal is to reduce the numbers of those types and increase the knowledgeable and understanding types.