Marching in the Streets

We doth not protest too much, methinks
By Frida Ghitis
Special to The Star
04-05-2006

What would it take to get you marching in the streets? Think about it: What would stir your soul so much that you would feel compelled to break your routine, join a passionate crowd and publicly shout your beliefs, or your outrage, or the end of your patience? The answer depends on where you live, how old you are and, of course, what principles you hold at the very core of your being. In that order.

In recent days, millions have marched in France and in America, in both cases protesting government efforts to tinker with a system that profoundly affect the lives of millions. Hundreds of thousands of French marchers passionately demand the right to hold on to an employment system grounded on wishes and not on reality. They refuse to relinquish the right to essentially never lose their jobs, even if that condemns millions of others (the protesters who burned cars in France last fall) to remain unemployed.

In California, Texas, Georgia and elsewhere in the United States, tens of thousands reached the end of their passivity when they heard politicians threaten to, among other things, deny health care and make felons out of immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally hoping to earn a living through hard work. In a problem without easy answers, the protesters wanted to put a halt to the worst instincts of politicians seeking to score cheap votes at the expense of human dignity.

If you live in France, protesting would have become a way of life dating back to your student days. If you live in a dictatorship, joining a camera-ready crowd on behalf of a cause you may not believe in is just another hated duty, as Iraqis learned under Saddam, and Cubans still endure under Castro.

Each country and each culture has a different threshold of outrage. While the young are generally quicker than the old to ignite into action, fiery Muslim politicians can easily whip up an anti-American crowd of all ages in Pakistan, for example. The Germans, meanwhile, seem more inclined than the French to negotiate before taking to the streets. Consider that the government in Berlin proposes much more radical labor reforms than the ones that brought the water cannons out in Paris, and yet, potential German marchers have stayed home during the debate.

Still, the Germans flooded the streets in an ocean of outrage over the war in Iraq. The matter of war touches Germany with particular intensity for obvious reasons.

But what about America? Marches on Washington are a revered tradition here. Gigantic crowds, bused from around the nation to rally in the shadow of Lincoln’s gaze, have become more a testament to organizational efficiency than to genuine passion. And yet, any group that can assemble a million people will catch the eye of the cameras and the ear of politicians.

That’s another requirement for a protest. If we feel that nobody will listen, that marching will do no good, we’ll probably stay home.

If "American Idol" can make tens of millions pick up their phones to express their views about a performer, what could make you turn off the TV and make a statement about something that actually matters? Is it genocide in Darfur? War in Iraq? A terrorist attack? Illegal immigration — or the measures to stop it? How about 46 million people without health insurance in the richest country on earth?

If France had 10 million without health coverage, it would have 20 million protesting about it. That’s not because Americans don’t care about the problem. A recent Gallup poll showed Americans worry about health care more than about anything else, with 68 percent of Americans expressing concern about their health-care prospects. There’s something to march about, and plenty of people to do it. What’s missing is someone to inspire the crowd into action, another indispensable element to move the masses onto the streets.

The matters that touch our hearts reveal much about who we are as human beings. The controversies that spark mass demonstrations reveal much about the soul and the character of a nation, and about the way that character may change in the years to come.

Frida Ghitis is author of "The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television."