Modern-Day Protests: Fear and Violence Overshadowing Ideals

Protests kind of scare me. They do not scare me because of their ideas or anything like that. No, they scare me because people too often get hurt in them. I live in North Dakota, and I see protesters and violence a lot. Protests are supposed to be about peacefully standing up for what you believe in. Yes, many protesters are peaceful, but the few that are not can ruin the nonviolent efforts. Also, some protests are not being done for the right reasons. There is paid protesting, and some protests around the United States are really just about whining. Some of these protests are not doing anything but spreading fear around the country. Protests are supposed to spread ideas and gain supporters for a cause. Modern-day protests are warping the

The Civil Rights Movement worked to end segregation in the United States. During this time, city buses were segregated: Whites could sit in the front, but Blacks were not allowed to. In an effort to end this segregation, Blacks refused to ride the city buses. This way of protesting was met with violence, yet it managed to stay nonviolent. In the end, this nonviolence worked, and “segregation on city buses was ruled unconstitutional”(Social Protests). Another example of nonviolent protests are sit-ins. The article “Social Protests” stated, “In February 1960, four black college freshman started sit-ins.” They sat at a restaurant that refused to serve black people and refused to leave. The article also stated,“By April 1960, more than 50,000 students had joined sit-ins.” These protesters were met with violence, but they refused to stop. This paid off in the end because many restaurants started to serve them. These protesters did it right. They were beaten up and constantly opposed, but they did not resort to violence. They showed that they could be the bigger person, even in the worst of times. They peacefully stood up for what they believed in and did not give up. Of course, there were violent protests during the Civil Rights Movement. According to the article “Social Protests”, in the beginning there were not many, but after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., violence became more common. Eventually a whole

While all Americans have the right to protest, that does not mean we can do whatever we want in protests. It is possible to make change while practicing nonviolence, but modern-day protests often fail to stay peaceful. People are getting injured, and many Americans are afraid of what is happening. You may think you do not have to worry if you live far away from protests that have happened, but protests have been popping up everywhere. It does not matter where protests have happened before; they can still come to the town you live in, and you never know if there will be violence. But maybe I am just a sixteen year old that is overly worried about everything, and maybe all of my ideas are rubbish. If I were you I probably would not believe me either. But nobody believed Einstein when he said that gravity could bend light, and it, in fact, can. Of course, I am nowhere near as smart as Albert Einstein, and this has nothing to do with gravity. But I do think it is time for all of us to take a good look at the world around us, and realize that although we want everything to be all sunshine and rainbows, it is usually not anywhere near