Protest and Prayer
I’m not a religious person, so when I suggest "Let us pray" it is a euphemism for hope. This came up in an exchange of emails with a friend and some of his friends. I was indicating hope that Bush and Cheney and their top minions would wind up in prison for their crimes. Someone responded, "Prayer is fine, but protest is better!"
First of all, there is far too much use of exclamation marks. If your words don’t convey the importance of your ideas, use some different words. It’s kinda like how some people use capital letters to shout. Bah. Use capitals on a single word or two to underscore for comprehension, not to cow a reader into supplication.
Second, I’m not sure the fellow is right about protesting being better. I drove past a peace protest in Monterey the other day. Dozens of people standing by the side of the road with signs that appeared to be calling for peace. Maybe passengers in other cars could read them, but most were writ too small for me to see.
I put my hand out the window nonetheless and gave them the peace sign; I abhor horn honking as it distracts other motorists and pollutes the environment.
But the sight caused me to think about such protests and wonder what positive effect they had over the years. I attended some of the biggest protest rallies ever, in New York and Washington, opposing the Vietnam War. Hundreds of thousands, maybe a million, people. But did they ever change any minds?
Dunno. I would think most people who see a crowd of protestors already agree or disagree and their minds aren’t changed, regardless of the issue. Do some people suddenly decide they need to investigate an issue? Perhaps.
It’s important that peace and justice be part of everyone’s awareness. It’s not clear that protest demonstrations – especially those that disrupt people’s lives – are effective in achieving that awareness.
©2010 SetonnoteS
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