Tuesday 28 July 2020

If you want to protest

then there are ways to do it - and do it responsibly as well as effectively.
Yesterday the organisers of a Black Lives Matter protest march lost their appeal for the march to go ahead. They now plan to do it illegally. 
The reason they lost their appeal is of course the Covid-19 restrictions in that state. Planning to go ahead illegally is, to say the least, irresponsible. It will do their cause no good. It could even do harm. If one person attending the march has the virus then they are capable of affecting hundreds of others very rapidly. The situation could soon be out of control.  
I was discussing this with someone yesterday. He is a member of the judiciary. He was very concerned because his grandson wants to attend the march. We discussed this by comparing my attempts to see the Senior Cat without an "appointment".
    "That really was different Cat," he told me, "You had gone through the necessary steps, indeed already been signed in when they stopped you. You were abiding by the rules the government had laid down. If you had appeared in front of me I would have granted you permission because the restriction placed on you was unreasonable in the circumstances. This is different."
Yes, it is different. Those organising the protest are behaving in a manner which is contrary to the well being of others. It is garnering them media coverage but it is almost certainly not garnering them support in the wider community. If there is a spike in cases because of their actions then the consequences could be extremely serious. People are tired of the current restrictions. They long for the pandemic to simply "go away". It is having not just severe health costs but financial, social and emotional costs that will take generations from which to recover.  What is more these issues also affect the issues the BLM protestors are talking about. 
It is time to be reasonable about these things. Change does not come about through that sort of action. It doesn't come about through "tweets of support" or badges on clothing or any number of other popular but effortless ways of "protesting". Real change can come about with things like individually written letters and properly conducted research along with well developed proposals for the future. Getting real change is hard work, very hard work.  
I know because I have done it.  I know other people who have done it. We knew when we started that we probably would never be "thanked" -  to the contrary. Popularity and media attention is not the name of the game. It is not why you do such things.  
Sadly the organisers of this march see themselves as warriors and heroes. If they get punished in any way they will be made out to be martyrs of some sort. They are not. When something goes wrong they will harm the very cause they say they support.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Real change can come about with things like individually written letters and properly conducted research along with well developed proposals for the future. Getting real change is hard work, very hard work."

Exactly. If everyone who wanted to attend the rally (and others) wrote to his/her MPs, the PM, papers, etc etc, that would have a tangible effect. Then repeat on a weekly basis.

(Do you have to put a stamp on a letter to the PM and MPs in this country? Emails are possibly easier to avoid and delete.)

LMcC

catdownunder said...

I believe a stamp is necessary - and I am not sure some of those protesting know what a stamp is!

Jodiebodie said...

My worry is about any inherent extra vulnerability that first nations people may have to the covid19. There is risk of devastating consequences if that was carried back to communities after the protest marches. Protesters say that their lives are already being lost due to systemic discriminatory forces and processes so what's one more thing (covid19) to threaten their lives? Is this where they derive their sense of urgency to protest? Is it a strategic decision to 'threaten' a protest and thus indirectly 'threaten' the risk of viral spread unless something happens to bring their demands to the negotiating table instead?