I have been in a battle with myself about same-sex marriage and how this issue affects my faith based belief of same-sex marriage. I have strong feelings about this issue is because I have friends, or have been friends with, or even meet , or engaged with an gay person or same-sex couple. The importance of this issue for me is that according to the Bible, which by beliefs are based off of says that Homosexuals are going to hell then why I don't have a sense of wavering away from this evil. To bring this back to activism, I feel strongly about it, but I wouldn't necessarily organize a protest about this issue. I'm a person who sees protest as an extreme way of voicing your opinion or making your voice heard. My idea of protest is sitting and having a civil conversation with the issue at hand. I feel that we can learn from history specifically pertaining to Civil Rights Movement on how to handle this situation in a non-violent plan.
The act of protesting in my mind leads to violent activity. Actions do speak louder that word but when you are fighting or voicing your opinion against something there is already a sense of anger and frustration, which in the right environment can rub together start a spark of violence. An this goes for the people that are involved in the issues that are being protested. That frustration and anger rubs off and causes verbal attacks which escalates to that spark of violence. The act of protest angers me because I hate to see people get into risky conflicts that can put other people in possible danger because of the actions of one group of people or person.
Then there is the idea of people like to stay away from conflict, which seems reflected for the above statements. It not that I want to avoid the issue at hand, but it the concept that there is a better way in my eyes to solve these issues.
I have to say that if you truly believe in something you shouldn't be afraid to speak out about it. I don't think that protesting necessarily leads to violence. There are also ways to protest without words an action. Silent pretests have proven to be successful and meaningful in many cases. For example, one a year pro-gay activists hold a day of silence in honor of gay rights. This is a way to bring attention to an issue without physically or verbally engaging with an individual. Furthermore, sometimes if you believe in something enough you might find it appropriate to engage and upset certain individuals. A protest doesn't always have to be violent.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I don't believe that all protests lead to violence, I do agree with the desire that issues could be talked about in a more civil manner. There is a difference between fighting for what you believe in, and absolutely refusing to hear the other sides perspective. Having a dialogue about disagreements, is, in my opinion much more effective that an event that could turn violent and eventually end in people getting hurt. That's why protests are sometimes ineffective, because people focus on knocking down the other side, rather than just standing up for their own.
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