Thou Doth Protest Too Much

Nice thing about America is the freedom to speak.  To be able to say what you want to your heart’s desire.

Lately, there have been so many protests all over, both, online and in the real world.

Historically, protests have been around since for as long as America came to be.

It used to be, back in the day,  ‘protest’ was always used along with the word “against” as in:  ‘We are protesting against the mistreatment of animals’.  Protests have evolved over the year and have been used as a movement of change.  The preposition, “against”,  is not used as frequently as it used to be, which indicates that the object of protest does not necessarily have to be in the form of “objection.”  As is seen in the movement of an organization that protests by promoting “pro-war.”  They are protesting, not the war itself, but,  for the war.  Protests seems to have evolved to become a group that serves to change public opinion.

For example, more recently - breast feeding pictures on Facebook (FB).   FB forbade pictures of that nature to be posted on members site.  Who’s willing to guess the number of people’s opinion on that subject have changed since this protest occurred?  I have read over 400 comments on several blog sites and newspaper articles on that very subject.  Quite an entertaining read and not only that, it broadens my mind a bit.  In spite of that, personal experience does weight heavily in the end for some.  For others it may be religion beliefs or something else.   An example would be that even though I believe that women should be able to breastfeed anywhere and in any manner they choose to such as exposing their breast instead of covering it up.  I had always covered up in public places, for a personal reason based on my experience.   Several mothers responded that it was better for the baby uncovered due to many factors.   And, as a personal perspective for me, I might choose not to expose my breast completely for a personal reason.  I did have an experience once when I went to a nudist beach out west with friends.  As I climbed up a rock structure that surrounded that beach, I came across a nerdy looking fellow with his pants down and jerking off while peeking down below where all the people on that beach was nude.  It was at that moment, that I decided, I wasn’t going to be an object for some creep.  Because of that experience, my views can weight heavily.  However, I might be okay with it at a nudist colony, where I know no one would behave as the nerdy fellow did on the rocks.

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Other protests can be unorganized, as such,  that there is no professionalism, nor ‘movement’ so to speak.  One example would be the protest that is currently going on in Deaf Video TV (DVTV.)   However, that very protest is also trying to change public opinion among it’s members.  It seems to be more of an anarchy than anything else.  Specifically, more of a personal issue that didn’t need to be laundered out.

I was out in Chicago last year for a wedding and upon killing time before the reception, my husband and I decided to check out certain parts of the LOOP.   I LOOOOVE Chicago, especially downtown. I loved it so much that once when I was 13, my best buddie and I decided we were going to run away and guess where we headed out to?  Just mere minutes away, to downtown Chicago and we hung out there, exploring the city.. When it got real late and dark, we were tired and hungry and decided we needed to hop on a bus and head back home.   We have never told our parents this (our parents thought we were at the other’s house.)  But, looking back, it was funny.  Of all the places we could have gone, the lure was our playground in downtown.  So, we checked out the area by the river and headed out to Michigan avenue and finally hung out at the Union Station before going to this reception by the Old Water Tower. We ran into several protests that was happening that day. One was a group that wanted to stop the war in Iraq. People of all ages, including kids were dressed up in tie-dyes, wore headbands, and carried signs. Vietnam Vets were among them. Truth be told, I have never, ever participated in any sort of protests and was fascinated watching them protesting!

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More recently, there is a protest movement that calls for solidarity with Israel, which is happening all over the nation. People are outraged over what is happening out in the Mideast. On the other side of that particular coin, there is this solidarity for Palestine. My gut feeling tells me this topic is going to be on the front page for most of 2009.

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There are lots of good readings on the history of protests in America, online.  Movements that are considered protests in music, for one.  The link to all that are within this paragraph.   With winter nights that tends to slip by slowly, the site is definitely a good read for these slow winter nights.

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Why do we protest? As this article showed, protesting increases the visibility of a cause, demonstrates power, promotes sense of solidarity, builds activists relationships, and the events itself energizes participants. Protesting helps a cause, or so they say.

Protesting is here to stay, it’s the American way~

Beastie Boys – Fight For Your Right