OPINION: To protest or not to protest?
Georgia Gay, Assistant Editor
With our current presidential status, protests have become quite the hot topic. Everywhere, people are coming together with a common purpose to express how they feel towards a government struggling to listen. When protests turn riots, the matter at hand becomes obsolete and the media only focuses on the violence rather than the message — it is hard to take people seriously when they are acting like wild animals instead of peacefully arguing their points of view.
To be more specific, a recent protest outside of the White House turned into a riot when a white nationalist was attacked by a group of protestors shouting slogans such as “No Donald Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA!” What is the best way to go about expressing your opinion without it turning violent?
People fail to see the fine line between a protest and a riot. Protests are supposed to be peaceful and express disapproval over an issue. Riots are what happens when protestors decide to turn violent and force the police to get involved in the matter. If people want to be heard, aggression is not the best way to go about achieving, well, anything. The millenniums are a generation that wants to be heard, but are struggling to find their voice. Hint: throwing bricks through store windows and lighting things on fire is not the best way to protest.
The media gobbles that up and spins it in all sorts of directions. Either the protestors are standing up for what they believe in, therefore condoning violence, or the protestors are uneducated buffoons who are not capable of standing up for what they believe in. Violence is almost never the answer, and until people start realizing the difference between protests and riots, no voice will be heard during a time that desperately seeks change.
