Say It Right-Nelly Furtado

So many things to say as it's been awhile since I've blogged...in lieu of catching up on the past two months, I'm going to jump right in on today-Sunday, October 13, 2013.

A little background for my readers abroad-I am currently in Washington D.C. for a teaching conference (more about that in a future blog post.)  Also, the government is currently "shutdown" as Congress can't agree on a continuing resolution to fund the government.  This means that certain parts of the U.S. government are not currently functioning and, as a result, national parks and monuments are all closed.  To protest the closure of national monuments (and the shutdown in general,) veterans from around the country came to D.C. to protest at the World War II Memorial.

As a government teacher, I always find it interesting to see people exercise their First Amendment rights so of course I wanted to go check it out.  Tami, my Brazil travel partner, and perpetual good sport, agreed to get up early to go with me to see what was happening.  We arrived at the Memorial around 8:30, thirty minutes before the actual event was to begin, and over the next few hours watched as the event unfolded.  As a result of my observations, here are some tips if you want to plan a protest of your own:

1. Be organized.  On one hand this event was organized as people showed up around the same time, in the same place, so obviously they knew about it somehow.  However, while there it didn't really seem like there was a clear coordinator/leader or anyone who knew what the plan was going to be.  One person would start to sing a song, so people joined in, followed by awkward silence until someone else started yelling a speech., etc.  If you're going to plan a protest, have a clear objective and an effective plan to get your message across.

2. Play on people's emotions.  This is a sure-fire success in the United States today, just ask the media, they do it all the time.  Speaking of the media, there were plenty of media outlets there, sharp dressed reporters followed by jeans-wearing camera men lugging big equipment around.  They were looking for anything that might make a good 30 second news-clip or soundbite.  Any veteran in uniform or camo holding an American flag made a good interview, bonus points if they were older.  As a further commentary on the media, check out the varying coverage below:

Here is the report from ABC News.
Here is what FoxNews had to say.
Here is the Washington Times.

Look closely for the pink of Sarah Palin's shirt!

3. Invite celebrities.  This protest was a bit all over the place until a few well-known names arrived, like Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz, then people started paying much more attention.  However, this tip must go with tips #1 and #4 because as the "guests of honor" were speaking, they were interrupted by the honking horns of truckers and that distraction diverted the attention of the whole protest for at least 45 minutes to an hour.

4. Coordinate with like-minded people.  As I mentioned above, in the middle of this protest, semi-truckers (who had planned their own protest for Friday which didn't really work out as they planned) started driving by honking their horns constantly.  They parked in front of the monument for awhile hoping to cause a disruption, which they did until police started blocking access to the road and then this

5. Don't be hypocritical.  Two incidents I found somewhat frustrating about this protest dealt with Ted Cruz's speech and the truckers.  First of all, the veterans were there to protest the memorials being closed because of the shutdown, yet when Ted Cruz spoke (he is generally recognized as the instigator of the shutdown,) everyone cheered.  Isn't it really because of him that the memorials are shutdown in the first place?  Then the truckers came through with the goal of stopping traffic, but when the police actually stopped traffic, all of the protestors started getting mad at them.  Both of these things seemed highly contradictory to me.

6. Don't be afraid to be an entrepreneur, regardless of whether or not you agree with the cause.  There were people selling t-shirts and waters and military flags.  It reminded me of when you're in a city and it starts raining, then, all of a sudden, there are people selling ponchos-where do all of these quick -minded sales people come from, and where do they store their supplies!?
 

7. Use social media-pick a good hashtag.  Twitter and Facebook are the way to go for any modern day civic action planner, use them to spread the word.






8. Be a responsible proponent of civic discussion.  While speaking, Senator Ted Cruz made a comment along the lines of, "Obama needs to put down the Qur'an, get off his knees and start working for this country."  This kind of comment does nothing to promote healthy civic discussion about important issues, but rather perpetuates misinformation.  This is irresponsible behavior for any protest leader, much less someone in a respected position such as a senator.


On a serious note...

Veterans deserve to be honored, respected, and taken care of.  Whether it is through a memorial in the nation's capital, at an airport when they get off a plane, or through funding of medical and/or psychological services.  They have done something that less than 15% of Americans have done for our country and they deserve to be recognized and honored for that service.  During one part of the protest they called out all of the wars since WWII and veterans from each war responded, it was really powerful to see and hear.

Our First Amendment rights are important.  Whether you agree or disagree with what someone has to say, it is so important that their right to say what they want is protected by our Constitution, and that this right has been preserved over the years by the judicial system.