Protest

Protest is the way that those holding the same fears or hopes gather to demonstrate their concerns. The collected persons are supposed to be peaceful but we know that behind it all,  they are not actually feeling peaceful. Most demonstrations are built on strong feelings, sometimes of celebration gone overboard or of anger and frustration or of a specific cause by an organization. And while the protest or demonstration begins as peaceful, too often the emotional weight of the opposing sides erupts and like a match to straw, it will burst into flame. People are hurt. A tiny physical shove, a rude word with retaliation and it's enough to see things get completely out of hand.  That kind of "flame" denies the whole concept of "peaceful demonstration" by those who thought they simply wanted to express their combined concerns. It's called a riot when tempers are loosed and physical acts are committed.  And that's when we call in the law keepers. Their difficult job is, while remaining neutral, having to cope with people who have lost reason. The law keepers put their own lives at stake trying to make order out of chaos. Demonstrating and protesting began hundreds of years ago and now there are those who are professionals at it. They have been trained and coached to know how to deal with what was once merely a group of individuals who had a reason to come together to make a show of numbers. These times, professional  demonstration folk teach methods of  appropriate attire, signage and strategies and, yes, even how to seek permission to hold demonstrations with notice so that there is police presence. It's a sort of accepted form of saying "yes" or "no" to  the group cause. I always hark to the animal world to find sense in some human reactions. How does a beast protest? Sometimes going back to the most simple view helps to clarify, the complexities of our modern human behaviours. A group of bees or wasps will gather to protect their nest, a clan of gorillas will make a united front to fend off intruders, a flock of crows will collect by scores in trees for a fallen mate. We aren't that far from our natural world when you think about it.  What is worse with we humans, is that we have intelligence, the kind that wants, always, for us to improve and further to improve on improvements. It gets us a long way in most things, but it can also get us into a lot of trouble. Part of the problem is when powers won't listen to individuals and therefore, people feel forced to find a way to be heard. If the number of votes is what it takes to be heard, there is no other route than to gather in numbers, and the larger the number, the more votes there are to attend. Whether this demonstration is a move towards peace or not, depends upon the outcome, and the peaceful outcome depends, oddly enough on the individual.