It has been said that actions speak louder than words, but is this true?

Does every action speak louder than every word? And when an action does speak louder than a word, is that always a good thing? The answer to all of these questions should be no, but many modern-day protesters feel differently.

As a libertarian, I think individuals should be skeptical of the government and openly criticize it. That said, it is a shame that so many protesters miss the point when they organize. Many protesters today tend to focus on spectacle over substance.

“I don’t think it helps them,” said Joe Skedd, sophomore KNPE major. “It takes away from their argument and puts more emphasis on them.”

Take, for instance, the recent case of the “Holy Name 6.” I have no doubt these people felt strongly about their convictions, but what they did hurt their message.

On Easter Sunday, these six war protesters interrupted a mass at the Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago to criticize a cardinal’s meeting with President Bush. They screamed, squirted fake blood and chanted against the war.

Parishioners were left baffled and angry, and the media focused on the protest itself. The protesters declined to comment.

I am not sure why they chose to protest in this manner as opposed to, say, handing out flyers after the mass. Surely, their actions spoke louder than their words. In fact, it was enough to render their words impotent.

“I’m not Catholic, but every church is a sacred place. And the war is such a deep issue already,” said Danilo Dorsey, junior history major. “It was just an awful way [to spread their message].”
The Holy Name case is only one instance where message takes a back seat to theatrics, but there are many more. PETA gave booklets to kids saying that their parents kill animals and it hurt their message of animal rights.

Anti-globalization protesters threw a pie in the face of the director of the International Monetary Fund, and the action became somewhat of a symbol for the anti-globalist movement. The list goes on and on.

Protests like the aforementioned do not seem very effective. I believe that a protest that ensures public visibility and presents a well-reasoned argument is much more powerful than the theatrics that so many protesters focus on. Protesters should be rational, focus on their message and not be bogged down by how wrong the other side is.

Eleanor Roosevelt was undoubtedly one of the most influential women of the last century, and when Adlai Stevenson praised her in 1962 he said, “She would rather light candles than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world.” Perhaps protesters today could take a lesson from her.

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