Protest rallies aren’t what they used to be. My first protest march was against the Vietnam War (or the American War, as the Vietnamese call it). Nixon was president and I was in high school (we took the day off).
Back then, marches were covered on the nightly news and we protesters had the heady sense that we were changing the world. We stormed the streets. It was Us against Them. Nixon’s administration saw it the same way and fought back with police and federal troops—which only helped our cause.
I’m older and quieter now. My early protests have evolved to making phone calls to representatives, purchasing boycotts, and changing my behavior (like trying to persuade rather than argue and being kind, in general). I wonder what happened to all those people I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with. Back then, we seemed to have such a strong righteous sense of common good…or was I projecting my own sense of humanity on the crowd while they were marching to save their ass from being drafted? In any case, the marches were effective and helped end yet another war.
I hope all the marchers who are still marching for the common good (civil rights for all, economic transparency in the world order, reproductive rights, etc.) are as effective and successful as we were back in the day.
