If there is something that you don't like about America, there are two things you can do to help resolve the issue in question: (1) go to work each day, and (2) pray with your family about the concerns you have.
Doing those two things are likely much more productive than taking part in a radical protest, which according to the daily news seems to be the norm these days.
I mean no disrespect to anyone or to any issue a person feels passionate about, but I have concluded that to take part in an organized protest--even a very peaceful one--probably doesn't do any good and may even be counterproductive.
But why, you ask, would work and prayer be the remedy? And the answer is because they have always been the remedy. Protesting involves focusing on all that is wrong in the world; going to work and practicing one's faith involves trying to do what's right.
Protesting has the potential for an ongoing confrontation. Working and praying are building blocks for gradual and peaceful solutions.
I was a young adult in the early 1980s and, while I remember the 1960s, I wasn't old enough to know about everything that was going on. But I remember as a young adult how I contemplated the tumultuous times of the 1960s, and I asked my dad about it.
"Why did people march in the street and get rowdy like they did?"
My dad frowned as he recalled those events and said, "I don't know--I can't understand why everybody just didn't go to work."
That was how Dad approached things. Just work harder and it will all work out. He operated his construction business in Northeast Arkansas that way, from 1964 until he passed away in September last year. He never had time for complaining or for protesting.
And in your own situation, if you are honest with yourself, you probably don't have time for complaining or protesting either.
While we can all agree that there are many issues that need addressing in our world today, the fact remains that there are many people who need you at work.
The country needs you to go to work because let's face it--we all need to be paying taxes at the federal, state, and local levels. Your family will benefit from your work because there are needs in your home just as in every home. Your church and/or your favorite charities need you to help where you can as a result of what you earn at work.
And there are people at your place of employment--both colleagues and clients--who need you to be there.
In the presidential election of 1992, when Bill Clinton was running against the incumbent, President George H.W. Bush, I remember radio broadcaster Paul Harvey said on the air on the day before the election that people should go home and pray with their families.
"That's right," he said. "Pray. If you will do that, you and your family will be better off no matter who wins in the election tomorrow."
Now, after reading this, if you feel like no one understands where you're coming from and that the only way you can get your point across is to march against something or against someone, please know that many Americans will never be sympathetic to you or to your cause if you end up harming people or property as a part of a protest.
If anyone involved in a protest physically accosts a person, if anyone throws a brick through a store window, if anyone burns a car in the street, if the crowd blocks a bridge or a road, if anyone prevents others from going about their business, if anyone shouts for death or injury to others, if the crowd disrupts the peaceful assembly of another group or organization, if the movement ever resembles a mob or seems to be condoning anarchy, the cause loses credibility and the people who are at work or at home saying their prayers--those people will likely not come around to embracing the mindset of the protesters.
On The O'Reilly Factor broadcast on television on July 11, host Bill O'Reilly stated it with more brevity. He said that if you are going to protest, "make sure you have your facts straight. And don't hurt anybody or destroy anything."
So at the end of the day, anyone can engage in a protest. No one will argue that a person doesn't have the right to do so.
But as for me, I prefer to do it the way Dad and Paul Harvey suggested. It won't get me on the evening news, but it just might be the way I can help the most.
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David Wilson, Ed.D., of Springdale, is a writer, consultant, and presenter who grew up in Arkansas but worked 27 years in education in Missouri. Email him at dwnotes@hotmail.com.
Editorial on 08/05/2016