“Why Protest?”
This is a questions that I’ve encountered lately, and perhaps the simplest way to answer this is to ask: What do you do if your house is on fire, and the firemen refuse to put out the flames, or there are no hydrants in your neighborhood? What do you do if your house is being robbed, but the police refuse to help or worse, decide to hurt. What do you do if a mob kills a child and many men who are suspected, and often innocent, of whistling at white women? In the 1960′s people protested, and with much gratitude to civil rights leaders of the time, conditions improved in many respects. So, what do you do when a child playing, in a park with a toy gun, is shot and killed by police? What do you do when a child is shot dead by police, or by a neighbor? What do you do when police annihilate a young woman while she sleeps in her home? What do you do when a police officer is the criminal, and the judge refuses to hear the case, and the government doesn’t address the problem? What do you do when this happens with increasing frequency of men, women and yes children--- without justice being served or even remotely addressed? Some people shout Black Lives Matter. In a time where there seems to be complete disregard for a human being, people march. Marching masses bring attention to the issue. People otherwise oblivious to the issues have the opportunity to take notice, and ask what it’s all about. When roadways are blocked the majority is inconvenienced, and the simple act of existing in a space collectively often brings about change from those typically unwilling lawmakers, in order to return to unencumbered daily life.
Peaceful Protest Power:
https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/7-times-protests-changed-us-history/
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world
https://acleddata.com/2020/09/03/demonstrations-political-violence-in-america-new-data-for-summer-2020/
Some of the Slain:
https://www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/23/us/in-tamir-rice-shooting-in-cleveland-many-errors-by-police-then-a-fatal-one.html
https://youtu.be/s78szANlt-c
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32740523