The Pros and Cons debated by David Zernechel and Tom Mason
David: Protesting Makes A Point
Protesting is a good way to get your point around and it is a good way to show what freedom of speech really means. It tells people what your point of view is on anything. Why be against a freedom of speech, anyways? Because you don’t want to listen and you get sick of people with signs outside walking around and waving their signs? They are doing what is right, or what they think is right for them and this country. And it does get your word around schools, and businesses people who don’t want to listen to the protesters. But still, they all have the courage to step out and show themselves to try to stop stuff or start things up like no other way, at all. So, I agree with the freedom of speech and protesting.
Tom: Protesting Is Not Helping Anything
I think that protesting is a way for a certain group of people to be acknowledged for having a certain belief. When people protest nowadays, they are protesting to improve their own life and not really to help the group. But when it comes to war, many “hippies” and people that want peace in the world will protest against war. They will stand on busy street corners and hold up signs for hours that say “End the War”, and “Violence is Wrong”, etc… Well, when I see people protesting I think for one that they are crazy and two people are not going to listen to them. When they are protesting they are obviously trying to prove a point. Unless you can get a meeting with the president or get a million people to back you up, no one will even think about let alone listen to what you have to say. Trying to protest against war is very hard and usually doesn’t get anywhere because we are at war. People are getting killed and we are fighting for other people’s peace and freedom so I think protesting is dumb and it doesn’t get us anywhere.
David’s Response: Not all protesters are hippies not even most of them and taking the word hippies to all protesters is just wrong. There aren’t many hippies left anyway. There are the New-Age ones but they’re not really hippies at all. In actuality, everyone listens to protesters or reads their signs. You quoted some of the signs in what you wrote. And if you really want to know, protesting does help. It stopped the Vietnam War, or helped stop it. It got our soldiers back here in the US. That gets you thinking. Protesting does a lot and it always gets you somewhere.
Tom’s Response: I agree that people may read the protesting signs but that is about it. That’s where the thought stops. People also protest about things that don’t really need to be protested about.