Keep protesting – injustice doesn’t end without resistance

INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

SAN FRANCISCO — Every time we hear an apologist remind us that their candidate won, so we should just deal with it –– as if protesting is simply what sore losers do –– somewhere, an angel of liberty loses her wings.

For those who support the sanctity of the Constitution and believe in the rule of law, for those who accept basic human decency as the foundation of their own individual rights and freedoms, the blind acceptance of any leadership that which spreads fear, hatred and lies in order to gain and maintain power will never be an option.

No, it doesn’t matter if leaders attain their positions through a lawful electoral process –– they still need to be held accountable for their actions –– and to ensure that their powers are utilized fairly and responsibly, conscientious citizens must remain intensely vigilant and exceedingly vocal.

History lesson

Besides, history has taught us that not all despots initially attain power through force. Ferdinand Marcos comes to mind, having been fairly elected to the Philippine presidency in 1965 prior to founding his 20-year dictatorship; Hugo Chavez also won a democratic election in 1998 before his 14-year reign reduced a wealthy Venezuela into the economic wasteland it is today.

Picture yourself as a citizen in Berlin in 1934, when Adolf Hitler was confirmed as Chancellor of Germany by a landslide majority vote. You are opposed to the newly instituted Nazi expansionist foreign policy and are bothered with the party’s sudden move toward extreme racial and religious intolerance. A Reich supporter reminds you, “He won, just deal with it!”

Sadly, most German citizens in fact, did just that –– allowing themselves to slowly desensitize their attitudes toward ever increasing atrocities committed over time –– until even the horror of genocide, brought upon by Hitler’s Final Solution seven years later, was deemed acceptable as domestic policy.

As extreme as the above example may be, just realize: The same process is always at play when facing any degree of authoritarian leadership. Every time citizens fail to stand up and resist when subjected to abuse, injustice, or intolerance, an implicit approval is given to the oppressor, signaling that they are free and clear to further escalate their control.

Crybabies?

Faced with the recent surge of mass movements worldwide, we are hearing regime supporters everywhere sound off that these protests are simply the futile, immature actions of crybabies standing in the way of people who were put in power legitimately. As if the legal authority of those in power should deter protesters from seeking justice. Undeterred was precisely what many idealistic protesters of the past were –– those complainers who took part in the Boston Tea Party in 1773 for example, or those 80,000 crybabies who joined Mahatma Ghandi on the Salt March of 1930. Never mind that the United States and India owe much of their existence today to these catalytic events.

A powerful axiom, paraphrased from Thomas Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence reminds us: “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”

Immense progress

Consider that the immense progress humanity has made toward addressing civil rights inequality, racial segregation, and apartheid was largely advanced by protests: there was Martin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington; Rosa Parks’ Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955; and also the Purple Rain Protest in Cape Town in 1989.

Consider that the 1986 People Power movement in Manila and 2010’s Arab Spring succeeded in toppling dictatorships; or that in many other nations around the world, the right to vote, work, pray, love, or live was born out of countless acts of peaceful resistance and protests such as these.

Bullies are empowered by the compliant and apathetic; they are disarmed when principled people stand up and resist.   Make no apologies for protesting. History has proved time and again that when noble citizens unite against tyranny, they ultimately prevail.

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