is that for the amount of effort that they put into being heard, little, in a practical sense, is attained. That is a harsh generalization, for many protests have harvested great results. But even more protests have done little to nothing at all.



I thought about this concept today, that protesting something nearly always reaps little in the end. I thought about it because, as I write this now, some passionate folks are protesting ECCU. That's right, protesting the Evangelical Christian Credit Union. You might be in shock, but you shouldn't be. As cool and calming as the words Evangelical Christian are to the world today (what with how we all undoubtedly voted "Yes" on prop 8, and how we all puke on people who are for a woman's right to choose), this, however, actually has nothing to do with being a follower of Christ, or an advocate of a high view of scripture.

No, this has to do with angry janitors.




I think they look a little like the people in the above picture. While I didn't sneak a very long look, I did hear them on bull-horns and drums, whilst screaming their voices hollow and dry. That was when I stopped to think about the idea of protesting. I, in proper Matlock fashion, raised my right hand to my head, scratched it, and inocently wondered outloud and rhetoically, "now what do these people think they're actually going to prove?"

First, we laid them off because we couldn't afford them anymore.
Second, they were great janitors.
Third, we had to hire cheaper janitors.

So they grabbed their kid's toms and cymballs, and their dusty old bull-horn they picked up 10 years ago from the Goodwill, and did them some protesting!!!

The cops arrived on the scene about 15 minutes after they began. They told them they couldn't come on our property and that they'd have to stay on the sidewalk. Cars drove by watching these grown men and women with war-paint and streamers and wondered if ECCU hadn't offended the Spaniards.

It's been an hour now and they appear to be leaving. And still, like Matlock, I wonder, what did their protest prove?

Don't get me wrong, if people didn't voice their opinions then they'd never be heard. And many people could point out the thousands of times that protesting resulted in victory on the side of the protestors. But the issue here is not women's rights, or freedom of speech, or education. The issue is that 40 or 50 people are annoyed that one of their biggest clients laid them off. Instead of looking for new clients they decided to rumage through the dollar make-up at Rite-Aid to smear on their faces in the hope that people would think they're after something important.


Perhaps I'm too cynical. I just think they're wasting their time, that's all. Now on to something far more appealing to protest about: