Hurts the message

I am writing in response to the Sept. 13 article "Color & Controversy." The focus of the article was on the different forms of protesting that have become popular. It also focused on how they change the effectiveness of protesting.

While I believe that protesting is an important right not to be forgotten or discouraged, I find the creative ways certain groups use to be distracting. The issues the groups are trying to bring to the attention of the media and the public and communicate to the leaders of the world are lost in the shuffle when the protests become a joke. And certainly, protesting is no joke to the people who participate.

Even in the article itself, a professor from Notre Dame says the antics "undermine" the issues that the protesters wish to bring forward. And some of the outlandish acts seem to have no significant connection to the issue at hand. Take, for example, dressing up as clowns before the G-8 summit in 2007. Clowns don't really have anything to do with the G-8, but the sight of a clown was enough to gain media attention. And when protesting gets too out of control, violence can occur, as it did in Seattle in 1999.

Despite the importance of protesting, when creative ideas negate the effectiveness, the protesting becomes less of a cause and more of a circus.

MEGAN MILLER
McCandless