Using the words we’re allowed.

Listening to the radio last week I was really surprised by the reporting on protestors at the G-20 summit in Pittsburg. The protesting itself didn’t surprise me, people can find reasons to be upset about anything, especially on the global level now. What I was more concerned with was the fact that the police were there to break up what was being reported as a peaceful protest and were doing so without much cause of the breakups being reported. Sure there was some activity of questionable behavior that might call for some intervention, but the biggest offense brought to light was that the group of about one thousand protesters didn’t have a permit.

Seriously?

A permit to gather peacefully? Excuse my language, but that is complete bullshit.

I can understand that on some level these permits are to protect the protestors themselves as it was in the case of protesting for and against proposition 8 in California last year, but the real reason behind a permit is obviously to be able to deny certain protests, or to keep them contained to a “safe” (read unobtrusive and ineffectual) location or distance. Aren’t we given the right to peaceful protest in our nation’s constitution?

Hold please while I do some research on that.

Ok, so maybe I had the wording off, but we are given the right to assembly. The problem with that is how vague it is.

Since this is supposed to be about my Writing and the Young Writer class, you’re probably wondering where I’m going with this. I promise I have a relevant point.

If I were currently in the classroom, I would use an opportunity like this to share with students the importance of not only knowing our rights, but also using them to our fullest capacity.

So they won’t let you protest the way that you would like to, what else can you do? Write about it! Write to your local paper, write up a flyer to give out, blog, whatever. This is also where using the writing skills that one learns in high school and college come into play. Words are not enough if they do not convey the message that you want them to.

This could even turn into a decent writing assignment. I don’t think that I would want to bring my students’ personal political opinions into the mix, but maybe something about school policies that they would like to see changed, but for whatever reason could not protest. Instead they would have to write a flyer, or letter for the school paper, or even a letter for the local paper to bring more attention to the issue outside of campus. I’m liking this, I think later I shall expand on it for my writing prompts assignment.