Protesting not what it used to be

By Roujin Mozaffarimehr

When was the last time you thought about protesting for something you were against or for a cause you believed in?

I'm pretty sure most of us have never taken part in a real protest. And by real protest, I'm talking about the 1960s -- people running in the streets and marching to Washington, D.C.

I've come to a conclusion: Protesting is dead.

On Sunday, Jan. 28, protests took place across the country against the war in Iraq in an effort to bring the over-exhausted troops back home. One would think that with a movement of that many angry voices, the country would respond.

I asked many different people about the protest, and most of them, not surprisingly, had no clue protests took place against the war. What happened to our nation's sense of civil disobedience?

It was less than 50 years ago that protestors rallied against the Vietnam War. They protested against racial discrimination, looking for a new country characterized by peace and equality.

Legislation was passed; troops came home.

The government was compelled to change policy because people spoke. People pushed for a cause with their voices, not with violence.

Protests do take place today -- Sunday was just one of many days where Americans protested in opposition to the war, speaking for change in government policy. Unfortunately, these rallies do not seem to be anywhere near the magnitude of the anti-war rallies that took place during the Vietnam War era.

It seems that 40 years ago, fighting for a cause was worthwhile. Everyone was up-to-date on what was going on in the world and within our own country. Today, my friends have no idea that huge protests take place within 40 miles of our campus. As students, do we even care?

We have become desensitized to the media and to the government.

I listened to the radio the day following the protests, and instead of having interviews of people at the protests, radio hosts had clips in which they judged, ridiculed and embarrassed the people standing strong for their cause. Even those who are supposed to be informing the public aren't taking these issues seriously anymore.

Maybe events that take place in the world have taken on this same role. Yes, war is going on. People are dying, soldiers are coming home in body bags and the government has been proven wrong on many accounts without any real consequence. Do we care? Apparently not. Instead, we enjoy listening to people ridicule those who do.

So does protest really work? Can people rally together and fight against something that they find wrong and indecent? And if they do, will they be successful? I don't think so.

Days after the United States' invasion of Iraq, the world was in a state of simultaneous protest. Just watch clips from System of a Down's music video, "Boom!," and you will get a sense of what I'm talking about.

Did anything change? No.

Forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. compelled millions to fight against racism.

Today, I cannot identify one movement that even compares to the magnitude and influence of the protests of that era.

Protest is dead. How far do we need to go to feel, to care and to believe? I'm not so sure I want to know.

Roujin Mozaffarimehr is a junior political science major.