Protest II - Living at a higher level

The year 2006 is the centenary year for a massive earthquake in the Bay area. The current football stadium in UC Berkeley has an earthquake fault line passing through it. I presume the centenary served as a reminder, for the UC regents decided that a new athletic center and a stadium would be built at another place.

For this stadium to be built, some oak trees need to be cut down. That's where the protestors come in. These are people from all over Berkeley, some are UCB alumni, some current students, and some just residents, who love the oaks, and can not take them being cut down.

What is interesting is the method of protest. The protestors have taken up residence on the trees! These residents take shifts in staying up there.

It is raining now. Tomorrow, it would be chilly. Its hard to imagine someone would be trying to catch some sleep there. But the protests would continue. And not without being noticed! They have had an effect already. The UC is reconsidering its decision. In time, I believe, the protestors would withdraw, but with better guarantees from the UC.

Which brings me to my point. Countless number of times, we merely accept an evidently wrong decision. The protests are limited to whining in private, and occassionally, in public. In IITK, a few years back, the then new director imposed several autocratic rules, and made numerous seemingly strange changes to the hostel gates, without any public justification.

My heart protested. I wrote about it on newsgroups. Some more people wrote. But that's about it! Nothing happened on ground. The administration escaped without having to explain their decision. That is what bothered me. A justification is minimal.

Protests are necessary. The authority must understand that it is governing, not ruling. That its decisions are not always accepted. Absence of protests against a decision which deserves protests sends wrong signals.

But that's only secondary. Sometimes, you need to protest merely for yourself. A protest that may not yield any results on ground, and you might know this right from the start, but it is important for you to still do it. To convince yourself that you do not take decisions lying down. That you disagree, that you have the courage to disagree, and know what is right and wrong for you. To convince yourself that when the time comes, you would protest, and make a difference.