Column by Matt Christy

The President of the United States is in his motorcade on a chilly, rainy morning in Washington, D. C.  He looks out of his window and sees the sidewalk covered with protesters.

They have been waiting in the rain and the wind with signs and banners supporting their political opinions, hoping he would drive by.  They yell and wave their signs, doing anything to get his attention.

The president is swept past them by his driver and taken to a room where his aides and advisers are waiting for him along with experts on the issues the protesters were demonstrating. The president also has polling data showing a representative sample of public opinion on the issue.

At that moment, should the president be thinking about the protesters?  Should they be a key part of how he makes his decision.

For whatever it’s worth, I don’t think so and I am fairly sure that the the protesters will not influence the president’s decsion.

It’s not that protesting is wrong—many of the greatest things accomplished in this nation happened through protest.

There are many things you can do if you are upset about the world around you.  A citizen can go to court and seek a fair ruling. You can write your congressional representative. You can vote. An individual can post fliers across neighborhoods without fear of violent harassment. You can ask the people you are mad at to sit down with you for mediation if they view you as an equal.  You can start your own free publication about this issue if your First Amendment rights are protected.

These options were not equally open to protesters in Alabama in 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus. However, whoever you are and whatever it is you are upset about, these options are open to almost every protester you see when you turn on your television.

The problem today is that we protest so often, and about so many things, that the government and most of the populous aren’t really listening anymore. These protests often lack coherency and aren’t the most effective way to make a point.

For example, Congress was right not to impeach President Bush because protesters with clever signs told them to, especially when as angry as some of us were, as a nation we re-elected the man.

Similarly, Obama is right not to give up his agenda because people like the tea party goers tell him to.

These protesters’ opinions may or may not make sense or represent the will of a civil majority of the people. As a result, the protests should not be the basis for our leaders decision making.

Everywhere Obama travels, people protests him, at times simply telling him to go home. Yet his international tour to improve America’s foreign relations was undoubtedly part of what helped him receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

The “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” is an organization that plans marches across the country where men march in women’s shoes to raise awareness of rape and sexual assault.

On Sunday such a march occurred in Lexington. It’s clever, inclusive, doesn’t alienate anyone and brings an often overlooked issue to light. “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” is one part of a larger campaign, and perhaps most importantly, it targets regular people who I’m sure will take notice, and in the long run hold the power in a democratic society.

The moral of the story is not “don’t protest.”  Protest your heart out, and bless you for exercising your right to do so. The point is to  protest to the people.

Protest to the people, and do so in conjunction with other methods of getting your message out.  Protest to the people, because politicians can’t keep their jobs without the people.

Lets take gay rights as an example. At this point it is all but inevitable that eventually the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy will be repealed and later on gay marriage will be legalized.

This will not happen because government officials see an impressive protest; it will happen; because polling data will tell them a large enough civil majority wants it to happen.

So protest to the voters, and do so in a way that brings them around to your viewpoint.  If you are going to be angry, or vulgar, or simply incoherently loud, all you are doing is hurting your cause in the long run.

You’ll turn people away while trying to get the attention of leaders who just aren’t listening.