Forum Post: What can 1 PROTESTER do? How about THIS?!

*What can one protester do?  How about this?:*

•   http://www.promisedlandblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/tank-man-tiananmen-square-19891.jpg

• and this -- http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/flash/photo/20090602-Lens-Behind-Tianamen/20090603-tank-newspaper-190px.jpg

And what can a group of those individual protesters do?  How about this:

• Egypt http://www.bostonglobe.com/rf/image_r/Boston/2011-2020/2012/11/27/BostonGlobe.com/Foreign/Images/f745a2cd024046a788adea78f9bf0696-dda4bde8684b1821220f6a70670000b5.r.jpg

• Tiananmen Square crowd http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/gallery/p2p-47271336/ 

• New York http://occupywallst.org/article/november-17-historic-day-action-99/   &    http://publicintelligence.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/occupy-the-bqe.jpg

• and  Walmart's in small-town America: http://www.google.com/search?q=walmart+protest+photos&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari#miuv=3

Americans and citizens of the world rise up and take notice when their fellow citizens take the streets, squares and public spaces.  The mainstream press can't ignore it at that point.. And that's what REALLY shakes the power structure, the LIGHT OF DAY.

We collectively have the power to shine that light wherever we want to aim it. It's a powerful light. We just need to wake up and realize we ARE the 99%, that we have more in common than we have dividing us. Then we can make decisions from a position of united strength instead of demands from a position of divided weakness.

NOTE:  *I think we need to remember that part of our job is to create nonviolent tension whether it's in the streets or with writings, sit ins, marches, street theater, walk outs, strikes, blockades, boycotts, etc. Tension is not a bad word.  In fact, it may be the primary ingredient of healthy change.*

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi were both experts at working with others to create healthy tension.  King described it like this in his "Letter from the Birmingham Jail":  

"Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to so dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood."

"The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation."

Here's the entire "Letter from the Birmingham Jail": http://abacus.bates.edu/admin/offices/dos/mlk/letter.html . It's a treasure and is as timely as ever. .