Protesters deserve support

When I was a little girl, all I wanted to do was change the world. In my earliest pieces of creative writing, I imagined working in a research lab in a rainforest where I found the cure for every imaginable disease. My best friend provided the funds for the research through her powers as president of the United States.\nIn middle school, all I wanted to learn about were the civil rights protests and Vietnam. I envied those people in the black and white photographs who burned their draft cards and marched screaming with their fists in the air. I could not understand how so many ills could exist in the world when there was so much opportunity for change. If people banded together once before, certainly they could do it today.\nI wanted to see people on the streets, standing up for what they believed in. Nothing is more noble than sacrificing yourself for the greater good, and I thought it strange that people were constantly complaining about things and never doing anything about the problems.\nUnfortunately, I started to understand why no one was protesting our current social ills when I got to high school. Apathy was cool. If it doesn't directly affect you, it must not make a difference. Only the dorks were passionate and outspoken about their beliefs. The cool people kept their opinions in check, so as not to let their friends know they have more worldly interests than the opposite sex or the next big social event. Without realizing it, the screaming protester inside of me was quieted by my surroundings.\nWhen I came to IU, I was ready to break free from the constraints of high school conformity and finally find a way to speak up. During the next four years, I would be a part of a campus that had a long tradition of activism.\nThis fall, I was amazed when students showed up by the thousands to protest the firing of an athletic icon. Bob Knight was a part of the IU experience, and we were not going to let his firing go quietly into the night. The administration was not acting in a manner the students found appropriate, so we spoke out against "The Man." \nFinally, people who are willing to stand up for what they believe in, I thought. People who recognize that change can only happen when they make their voices heard.\nBut when it came to environmentalism, rape or even gay rights, apathy, conformity and general laziness again reared their ugly heads. \nTracy "Dolphin" McNeely and Mary Demkovich, two current tree sitters, should be receiving more support for their efforts. They are giving up their lives, their very right to walk on solid ground, for something in which they believe. Some people have gone to visit McNeely, and people have brought her necessary food, water and blankets. \nAnd then there are those who think McNeely should get out of the tree. They think she is wasting her time, because they will cut down the forest anyway. Why would she want to spend her time doing something if she knows she will lose?\nBut the truth is a protest against something is not always about winning or losing. It is about raising awareness. I am sure that when Mahatma Gandhi decided to start his movement of non-violent protest in South Africa, success was an impossibility. The British and the Afrikaaners had oppressed Indians in Africa for so long, how could one person have the audacity to think he could change that? The white man had always been triumphant in South Africa; why would Gandhi want to waste his time trying to protest that?\nGandhi set off a spark that set loose a fire that spread throughout India and South Africa. The people in power began to realize that they could no longer turn a deaf ear to the cause, and change followed. The road was not easy, it was not logical and it was not expected. But that is why it worked.\nSo maybe I can change the world. But I can't do it alone, and neither can anyone else. Gandhi's movement was successful because people shed their shells of apathy and fear. Like those people who refused to talk for an entire eight hours in support of gay rights, they decided that a cause was greater than themselves. \nWhen you put down the efforts of one person trying to make a statement, you limit yourself and others around you. You are putting limits on the change that could come about if you simply showed support. You are putting limits on the world that our children will grow up in. Don't settle for what we have now. The next time someone is brave enough to stand up for what he or she believes in, try lifting that person up instead of shooting him or her down.