Opinion Assignment #3

Protest no matter how they are done is important for people to get out their message and help change the way people think and act. With that said I do believe that celebrity activism is less effective and defiantly less dangerous. Back when protests were about social change people would be out in the streets picketing with signs, burning flags etc to help get their message across. Now when celebrities’ protest they put together threw benefit concerts sure they help raise money for a cause but most of the people at the concert don’t care about the protest or the cause, they just want to sit around and watch their favorite band perform.

Though my next example might be little out there, but I feel like they hit the nail on the head for musical protests. South Park did an episode on when hippies took over South Park and made a huge hippy jam festival to “listen to music and fight the corporation.” Instead of doing anything and actually fighting the corporations, the hippies just sat around and smoked and did absolutely nothing but complain about the issue at had at hand. The point to this example is that even though they were there for a cause and supporting it all they really wanted to do was hook up and smoke. It’s the same with celebrity concerts, sure your there for the cause but are you there for the right reasons?

Protest are not to be there to listen to music and have fun, but to be out there on the front lines fighting for a cause. Like what Klein said, these celebrities are trying to reason and negotiate with political leaders. Protests are not about reasoning, they are about radical change in the government. For example with SB 1070 celebrities like Shakria, Rev Al Sharpton and Danny Glover all came to Arizona to reason with the governor and other law makers for them to reconsider and change SB 1070. Not a lot of people knew this was going on or if they did really didn’t care. What people really noticed and sparked everyone’s interest was that people were seeing these elaborate protests with people that numbered in the thousands. That brought the attention from people all around the United States and our own federal government

Defiantly these celebrity concert protests are a lot safer then a normal protest. Celebrities are able to hide behind their skills and use them to “fight the man.” By doing it this way you don’t risk getting arrested. You are able to use you skills to better get the word out, but you use the security of your skill set and I feel that will set up barriers between you and the audiences.

If Klein is right I think what’s the difference between today’s kids and the Vietnam War protesters is people are afraid. Klein makes a good point that with the internet people are able to blog about their feelings and their beliefs, but when it comes to the point to stand up and fight they back away like a scared puppy. I know online I used to talk a lot about my political beliefs, but when it came to protesting or standing up I was too afraid of the consequences to go to the protest. That has recently changed im becoming involved, but I understand why people are scared to stand up and say “hey I’m here, I’m not going anywhere and this is my beliefs.” People don’t want to risk getting in trouble fighting the man jail is a scary thing to people.

If Klein is wrong I feel that both Bono’s poverty fight and Pam Andersons PETA battle have a very strong chance of being some of the more powerful protest groups. With Bono’s charity concerts he is helping raise money to fight poverty. Also with Pam Andersons stardom she has raised countless of millions of dollars for PETA to help fund and stop animal abuse. Even though protest are about spreading the word and changing the governments mind, money is important as well to help spread the word. They can help you get T.V. commercials, buses to protest events and actually provide aid to the people you are trying to protect. Money is important in today’s world and protester are now relaying on these other avenues to help get there message out there.

I myself am a protester for gun rights for law abiding citizens. I used to be one who would just sit around and talk about it with friends and post my feelings on Facebook and Myspace. Through this process I met other people like me but none of us really did anything about it. We then found web sites that had a list of protest and other events to help spread the word that not everyone who carries guns are criminals. We do things like open carry dinner nights to show restaurants how much business they are losing by not allowing gun owners in their establishments. We do open carry park clean ups to show the community that gun owners are just like you and are trying to make the community a better place and so on and so forth. Through this process we helped get people on our side for gun rights and help pass certain gun laws. We have also lobbied to restaurants to remove the no gun signs in their window which a lot of them have complied and some places tell me that they have seen no rise or fall in violence since the sign has been removed. We have changed anti gun owner’s minds about people who carry guns, and some now even own and carry guns of their own. My point to that is we could have easily sat behind our computers, complaining about how guns laws are restricting us and made fundraisers to help the cause but it wouldn’t have changed anything. Like Klein said to see improvements you have to be out there showing people who you are and what you believe in. Sure we might have gotten the same results down the road from just talking online, but if you want to see results now I feel that you need to get out there now and do something about it. Don’t let life pass you by.