October 13 is Blog Action Day, a yearly event hosted by Envato where bloggers if they choose, join in on a particular topic. This year’s topic is Human Rights and they are partnering with Amnesty International. There are human rights issues all over the world and I guess that I could write about them but I have nothing new to add to the discussion. I am much more comfortable posting about things that I’ve seen myself. My Human Rights topic is the right to protest that we have in America.
(All photographs are mine.)
Whether we are protesting unfair labor practices, or those who hurt children, or perhaps you don’t want Keystone XL pipeline built, or perhaps you do, or you don’t like our country’s taxation and spending policies, or maybe you think that Wall Street dominates our life too much it is amazing to me how much protesting is done in my home town of Tulsa. The buckle of the Bible belt, a very conservative community where the current big civic controversy is a green waste pickup program that has gone awry somehow.
In many other countries the powers that be don’t like protest or free speech. If they want you to have an opinion, they’ll give one as the saying goes. Some countries will put you in jail. Some might even kill you. 
The problem here is not that we don’t have freedom of protest its that we take it for granted. I’ve heard people tell me that protests shouldn’t be allowed. Especially things like union picketing, or environmental activism, or other not very nice topics.
Some such people tell me, well yeah they should have free speech but that is more like writing letters to the editor and such. Not out in public rubbing it in our faces.
So yes, I am concerned about abuses in Syria and Egypt but I am also worried about Americans losing their rights, or trivializing their rights, or morphing our rights into something altogether different. For example it looks like the US Supreme Court may eliminate political contribution limits in the name of Free Speech. Uh?
People have the right to stand up and be counted.
They are making an appeal to not only the courts, or the police, the legislature, mayor, governor, and president, they making an appeal to you.
Ignore them, or talk to them, read their signs or not. But let them have their say.
By letting them exercise their rights, you are protecting your rights.
