The planned protest march

here should be abandoned.
I know many people will disagree with me. They will have the say "we have the right to protest".  I agree. There is a right to protest. 
It has to be done legally and sensibly and without risk to other people. Provided those things are taken into consideration then there is a right to protest.
Right now though people have been told they may not gather in large numbers. It is not sensible to do it and protestors are risking the health and safety of other people as well as themselves. 
The lives of my friends, whatever their racial background, matter to me but I won't be going out there to protest. There are better ways of showing them I care, of showing that I care about all people.
A couple of days ago at the shopping centre I was undoing the lock on my bike when I heard a warm, "Hello Cat, haven't seen you for a while." I looked up to see my friend J.... She is Muslim, wears the hijab and dresses traditionally. We met long ago over a discussion about biscuits when her youngest child was still not going to school. Both her children are now at  university. Ours is the sort of casual friendship where we don't visit one another at home but have sat and had a cold drink together on a hot day and a hot drink on a cold day. We know about each other's families. I have met her children more than once and her mother once.
It still saddens me that there are people who seem to think there is something wrong with this. "You shouldn't talk to her," I was told once. Why? I talk to young hijab and jeans wearing students about their coursework  in the same way and often in the same place. What's so different?
Chatting to J... and sharing some time over a drink is a better form of protest than going on a march.
I didn't get a hug from my friend M... when I saw him recently. He usually gives me the best sort of bear hug but hugging is not allowed right now so we gave each other a non-contact high five and laughed about it. The bank clerk did not look impressed.
    "Do you know him?"
 I wanted to say, "What business is it of yours?"
Instead I said, "Yes, I've known him since my teens. He's been like a brother to me."
I hope my tone of voice told the bank clerk, "It is none of your business and would you have asked if the colour of his skin had been different?"
M... has been a friend for more than fifty years and, were it not for the wretched virus, we would have hugged. Doing that in public  is a much better form of protest than going on a march.   
I could add examples from the lives of people I know. They care every bit as deeply and passionately about others as those who want to go out and protest. They are just getting on with the business of being friends, being supportive - and sometimes assertive. 
If everyone who went out to protest actually did that in public every day then perhaps we would not need those sort of protests.