Protesting Properly, Effectively

IN THE GOOD OLE U.S.A., a few concerned citizens were sentenced to long prison terms recently for breaking into a nuclear power facility and vandalizing it with red paint and unpleasant messages. The judge explained that he had the utmost respect for their deeply held religious beliefs, but that it was no excuse; they had broken the law. Fair enough. These latter day hippie radical environmental activist pacifist types are well intentioned; but vandalislm is vandalism, red paint thrown on concrete must be scrubbed off. Anytime, anywhere, anybody protests anything, chances are, its for a good reason. People seldom if ever go to the trouble to organize public protests without having a good reason for so doing. Support your local protest, whatever it happens to be. The key to effective protesting, other than having a good message, is to present the message as clearly and persuasively as possible, over a long period of time, to as manhy people as possible, without incurring a violent response, and thus risking death, imprisonment, and the end of the protest and its sacred cause, whatever it is. You just don't see very much effective protesting from jail. Millions of people already agree that nuclear power is dangerous and highly questionable; instead of vandalizing stuff, the best way to get this message to the masses is through the power of the mighty pen, or mighty keyboard. May the good people of Kiev force their government to accede to their every reasonable demand! And may they find a way to do so, using non violent resistance, which doesn't get any more of them killed. The Russian female rock band "Pussy Riot" would probably accomplish more by living in the United States, giving concerts, and using the internet, instead of standing on streets in Sochi, or performing in Russian churches, getting arrested and beaten. You always hate for protest leaders to land in jail; they often vanish entirely, and, along with their good messages, are never heard from again.