The right to protest

I have been thinking a great deal about our right to stand up and be heard when we don't agree with something. This thinking led me to do some research about how we, as a people, have repeatedly used and abused this "right" in my lifetime, a mere 41 years. In my research I found that there are a MYRIAD of different sources on the topic, but that the majority of them all agreed that the "right to protest" is actually a perceived human right. It is not something that is protected by law, or constitutions, or the United Nations. Rather, it has risen out of a few other actually recognized human rights, such as the right to freedom of speech and the freedom of assembly. 


But I think if you were to poll a group of random people, most would say that we as human beings DO have the right to protest...  But DO we? Merriam-Webster's defines the verb PROTEST as:

• to make solemn declaration or affirmation of such as "to protest my innocence"
• to execute or have executed a formal protest against (as a bill or note)
• to make a statement or gesture in objection to 

And with that definition, I believe that we DO have the right to protest, but with that right comes EXTREME responsibility.

And what we have seen time and time again are people standing on their perceived soapbox of PROTEST, yet doing something so much more extreme. And although I CANNOT understand or support a country that prohibits free speech, I can almost see why they justify not allowing it in their lands...... because somewhere in mankind's messed up mind, free speech turns to protest turns to this:

which then turns to this: 

Children walking down the streets of their neighborhoods in Watts, in Cincinnati, in Los Angeles, and now in London.... seeing what their "neighbors" have done to their community... 

They hear words like protest and police and riot and looting all in the same sentence and images are imprinted on their young, impressionable minds.  The burning buildings bother me; the litter and trash bother me; the fights between police and civilian bother me; however what these young eyes are seeing each MORNING AFTER bothers me the most.