I've been trying to keep up with the news on the protests that occurred at G-20. There was one protest that erupted in a big way, a bunch of Pitt Students and a CNN reporter got gassed and arrested. It's unfortunate yes, but I say it was a sign of success. In every protest/revolution/etc. there is one fact that a lot of people overlook, and that is, to make prominent change one must involve the middle class, the voters, the populace who otherwise don't know what is going on. I repeat myself, yes, but I can't think of any other way to put it, The Willingly Blind.
I've been to several protests myself, and for the longest time I was weekly helping a group called Food Not Bombs. I tried my hardest to submerse myself in that culture but that was the one trend I could not help but see. A lot of these groups have the right idea, their heart is in the right place, but overall it comes down to one fatal flaw, you're preaching to the choir. Food Not Bombs for instance is a world wide group that cooks vegan and vegetarian food for the homeless in metropolitan areas. They do so by donations from supermarkets, dock workers, pretty much anyone with perfectly fine vegetables that are not otherwise "fit" to be sold to people. They are not a non-profit group, at least in the eyes of the law, and for the most part it's a group of people who share similar ideals who do something great for the world and make damn sure it's in plain, public view. My reasons for ending my tenure with the group are my own, but there is a problem with this otherwise fantastic group and it's the same problem that many movements meet, and that is both its strong point and weakness. Simply, it's a group of like minded people that are dissenting while becoming prone to the very same trends that say, the republican party fall prey to.
Everyone is so like minded, and so agreeable that barely any growth comes out of it. Sure, it's in a public place, especially in the case of the group I was in. We served in a very touristy, middle/upper class area, but the people who lived and visited either just didn't give a damn, or were so foreign to the idea of helping people that they were completely disgusted by the display of hope and good will that they would call the police. In a country founded by these ideals it is now just a cruel, dog eat dog world. It's like when I walk down the street and hold doors open for people going into buildings that I myself am not going into. They get repulsed! Especially women, because in this society, especially on the East Coast, we are so jaded with these ideals, that we get scared and uncomfortable. This leads me to my point, it is not the groups that fail, never, it is that we live in a world where being a Good Samaritan is either considered a sign of weakness, or it's so foreign to people that they get scared and think "he/she's being nice, what are their real intentions?"
It's repugnant, it really is, I'm prone to it as well, If I see a lost child crying for their parents, I'm afraid, because I wonder what are people going to think? Maybe I'm a molester, maybe I'm trying to hurt the kid. Luckily I'm young enough now that there's the off chance that people will think he/she's my younger sibling, or given how the world is now, my son/daughter, but in 10 or 15 years? What then? But I have greatly digressed. What people need to do is they have to make their cause and actions acceptable to the middle/upper classes, the group that society deems "fit" to have a word. Sure, the constitution has changed, but the ideas of the founding fathers are still strong. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness...if you are white, male, middle aged and own land. What we blue shirts need to do is try to set aside our class biases even for a moment and try, and I mean really TRY (trust me, it's hard) to make our causes and ideals known to that "Higher Class". We need to package them in such a palatable way, without sugar coating the real story, so it's easier to swallow and maybe then we can have some sort of unity.
-Jonny Gonzo
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