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| First, do some old-fashioned research! |
When I watched a student sit-in on the television, I could only wonder how informed those students were, and whether they were interfering with classes other students wanted to attend. I would have preferred seeing them in the library, researching the complex history (or whatever it was that they chose to protest) rather than sitting in tents blocking other students trying to get to class, and protesting with people who already agree with them.
Today education is far more complicated than when I went to college. Often universities are the biggest employers in the town or city. They are often the cultural source not only for the students, but also for the city and surrounding area. Some provide clinics and health screenings. Stores in the city often depend on the students as customers, as well as employees for the city's businesses.
At larger universities there may be important activities beyond classrooms, such as Laboratories doing intensive medical research that requires undisturbed work. Departments of Energy, Agriculture, Programs in the Arts and other activities having nothing to do with the issue that protesting students are interrupting. These opportunities beyond the traditional classroom may allow students to work alongside men and women outstanding in their fields, allowing the students to learn more than they otherwise would from lecture halls and assigned reading. Protests that interfere with the rights of others deserve serious reflection and respect for what they are interrupting.
While it is important for students to be aware beyond the classroom, and the right to speak and demonstrate are valued principles of our Constitution, the balance of the rights of others are also important. I believe that too often issues important to protestors serve a disappointing purpose and an unnecessary disruption. Freedom of speech and public protests are valuable gifts protected by our Constitution. They deserve thoughtful preparation.
Marches and sit-ins have been positively effective to our history. Often, inconveniencing others has been important in bringing attention to the issue. What I would hope is that those of us who use our important American right of speech and protest recognize what valuable rights we have, and before we join the protest or use our right of freedom of speech, we pause long enough to reflect on and understand what we are protesting and why we feel it is important to protest.
Whether you are a student or a senior citizen, before you pick up a protest sign or block the route of others, I hope all of us remember what and why we are protesting and that we use our privileges of protesting thoughtfully. I prefer to see protestors prepared to discuss issues rather than screaming back and forth, and I definitely dislike angry voices that have not taken the time to understand the issue they proport to explain. Our right to protest in invaluable. It must never be taken from us, and it deserves the thoughtful use of that privilege.
